


Full Body Check

by Kasuchi



Category: Big Time Rush
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hockey, Challenge Response, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Gen, Gen Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-17 08:44:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 38,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasuchi/pseuds/Kasuchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gustavo Rocque comes to Minnesota for one thing: find the best junior hockey players in the area so he can finish his community service and get out. Kendall knows it's his one chance at his dream: to be the best hockey player ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For **bigtimebang**. Many thanks to **phantompearl** for being both beta and artist to me!

** PART ONE: OLIVIA **

It was 41 degrees that afternoon. 

Kendall, warm in his beat denim bomber jacket and knit hat, shifted his weight onto one foot and eyed the long wrench attached to the sprinkler main. "Opportunities like this come once in a _lifetime_ , and when they do, you gotta grab it and turn that thing big time." Kendall grinned and shot Logan, who continued to look wary, a triumphant look. 

If Logan's mouth were any thinner, it would disappear. "Turn it and I predict a ninety percent chance of bodily harm -- and I'm talking about _us_ , not them." He pointed at the far field, where the girls' field hockey team was holding practice.

Carlos dropped his backpack and hockey duffle to the ground in an inelegant heap. "Wimp!" he cried, and pulled on Logan's goalie helmet, snapping the face shield down and tapping it twice. With a leap, he grabbed the t-bar and began to attempt to turn it. "Hrk! It's stuck." 

James, combing his hair, remarked appropos of nothing, "I had my popstar dream _again_ last night. This time I was wearing my lucky vee-neck and I sang a Smokey Robinson song." Kendall and Logan traded looks. James took a breath and crooned, "Tracks of my tears. Yeaah--" He paused. "What are we doing?" 

Kendall shot James a flat look. "Uh, janitor left the t-bar in the sprinkler valve, and do you _wanna_ help us soak the girls' field hockey team?" 

James beamed. "Uh, _yeah_ I do." He dropped his bag of gear and marched up to the t-bar, taking a spot next to Carlos. Kendall followed suit, the three of them ready to apply a little torque. As one, they shot Logan expectant looks over their shoulders. 

Logan hesitated, shook his head, and muttered, "I gotta get new friends." Then, throwing his gear to the ground, he pushed in next to Kendall. The four of them used their full strength until the valve gave way and the familiar sound of rushing water was obvious. They stepped back, grinning at the screaming, panicking girls for a moment, before the horde of stick-wielding women realized exactly who it was that had drenched them in the cold. 

"And now we run." Kendall pushed the others and they took off in a scramble, the thundering of forty girls chasing after them getting louder as they fled. 

"This is what it'll be like when I'm famous," James called out as they raced for their lives. "Only the girls won't be trying to kill me!"

"Shut up and run!" Carlos retorted, smacking James on the shoulder. 

They ducked into a dumpster, popping out once the girls had run past. Carlos had flipped up the face shield and was munching on a sandwich. The other three shot him similar looks of disgust that turned into revulsion when he offered them a bite. They leaped out when the screaming horde clearly had discovered them, racing down a still half-iced sidewalk. Kendall hooked a left and the others followed, only for them all to be faced with a ten-foot high brick wall, dead-ending the alley. They whipped around and pressed against the brick wall.

Kendall stepped forward and made a frantic time-out gesture. "Wait! Time out!" he cried. The horde came to a stop, the thundering of tennis shoes on concrete drumming to a halt as several dozen girls brandishing field hockey sticks and breathing hard waited, their expressions containing nothing short of murder. 

Kendall turned to Carlos. "Give James the helmet. We gotta protect The Face."

"Right," Carlos agreed, and pulled off Logan's helmet, passing it on to James. 

James, in turn, pulled it on and brought the face shield down, snapping the strap in place. "I love you guys," he said, voice completely serious.

Kendall turned back to the horde and, with a sheepish expression and a shrug, said, "Time in?" 

They knew they would never forget the shrieking.

&&&

Across town, Gustavo Rocque stood in court and watched solemnly as the judge read the ruling. Beside him, Kelly Wainwright hung her head in shame.

"Two counts of misdemeanor vandalism, one count of libelous publishings, and one count of indecent conduct concerning a mailbox?" The judge looked at Gustavo with a mix of astonishment and barely-hidden disgust. "You're despicable."

Gustavo moved to retort, but his lawyer and Kelly clamped vise-like hands on Gustavo's arms. Gustavo snapped his mouth shut.

The judge had continued talking. "...utterly abominable behavior. For your actions, I sentence you both to 500 hours of community service. Your assignment will be made known to you in a briefing to follow this trial." He struck the gavel. "Case dismissed!" 

Gustavo gaped at the bench. Five hundred hours. Of community service. _In Minnesota!_ It was like the most injurious insult to the most insulting injury. He wanted to break things, smash everything. 

Kelly squeezed his arm harder. "Stop it!" she hissed. "If you berserk, we're going to end up doing way more time here in _Minnesota_ sleep."

The sentencing briefing that followed was, well, brief. 

"Are you familiar with cross-country skiing?"

"No," Gustavo and Kelly chimed, arms crossed stubbornly across their chests.

"What about ice fishing?"

"No."

"Boy scouts?"

"Lady," Kelly stated, raising an eyebrow. "We're music producers from L.A. Do we look like troop leaders to you?"

The courthouse clerk didn't even blink. "How about hockey?"

Gustavo coughed. "I played pee-wee hockey for a year when I was a kid."

"Done. You'll be working with the American Hockey Union for the next three months. Congratulations." Her voice was completely flat and devoid of enthusiasm. "Room 6B, down the hall." 

"Uh, thanks, I guess." 

When they were in the hall, Kelly grabbed Gustavo's shirt lapel. "I. Don't. Know. Anything. About. Hockey." She ground out between gritted teeth, each word punctuated with a tug. 

Gustavo whimpered. "I barely remember how to play, okay? It's not my fault that--"

"Not your fault? _Everything_ about this situation is your fault." She let go of his shirt collar and stood there, arms akimbo. 

He sighed. "Let's just go to the AHU and get our assignment, okay?" Turning, he rapped sharply on the frosted glass door bearing the brass lettering of 6B, the plates rusted and chipped with age and the door in little better shape. They turned the handle and opened the door.

Inside was a sparsely decorated office, with banners and framed photographs covering the walls. In the center of the small room, behind a too-large-for-this-space desk sat a middle-aged man with thick cokebottle glasses and a slight mouthbreather quality to his respiration.

Gustavo tamped down a feeling of dread.

Kelly swept forward. "Hi! We just got assigned to the American Hockey Union for our community service."

The guy looked up and squinted at both of them. Then, reaching into a drawer, he pulled out two forms. "Fill these out," he said flatly, then placed pens in front of them. Gustavo and Kelly exchanged a look, and then scribbled in the boxes and handed back the forms.

The clerk didn't even look at the forms, instead stuffing them into a manila folder and shoving them into a drawer. "Thanks," he said listlessly. "You'll be working with our charity team, the Raiders."

Gustavo shot him a look. "And?"

The guy blinked at him. "Here's a page with your instructions. The team owner will meet you once you've finished recruiting your roster." He handed them both copies of an instructional flyer, printed on mint-green copier paper. The instructions were fairly simple: recruit in these three counties, assemble the twenty-players minimum for the roster, bring them to Little Falls for conditioning and the end-of-season tournament. Along the right hand side were dates that Gustavo guessed were deadlines.

"Uh-huh," he said, setting down the page. "And who do I report to?"

The guy blinked slowly once more. "Your team owner will be keeping an eye on you and reporting back." 

Gustavo could feel his rage building up at this person. Kelly intervened. "Thanks so much, we'll call if we have more questions, thanks again bye!" She dragged Gustavo, whose fists were clenched so hard the veins on the backs of his hands were beginning to stand out against his skin. 

"THAT GUY--"

"Stop, we can rage later. First, we need to start recruiting for a team of hockey players from...where the heck are these places?"

"I'm going to train these kids like I train singers!" Gustavo shouted, his glasses cracking slightly from the force of his voice. He pointed at Kelly. "I need skating blocks of wood that I can set on _fire!_ Preferably with great hair." 

Kelly just barely managed to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

&&&

The four of them were lounging around at Kendall's house, nursing bruises and various injuries sustained from their (deserved) beating. Logan was laughing as Carlos moaned on the floor.

"I can't believe you tried to cop a feel," Logan said, shaking his head.

"Shut up, man," Carlos moaned. "I figured I was getting smacked around already. May as well come away with some benefit."

"You're lucky she didn't smack you in the arm," Kendall pointed out. "We'll need you ready to go for the regional hockey matchup."

Logan rolled his eyes. "Bad enough we're the only sophomores on the varsity team. If Carlos had gotten injured doing a prank? We'd have never heard the end of it." 

"Whatever," James broke in, unwisely poking at a bruise on his ribs. "At least they didn't get....The Face." He gestured dramatically at his countenance, complete with spirit fingers and a neck roll. 

The other three threw whatever soft and mobile item they could at him. When he emerged from the pelting, James looked miffed. "Hey!" 

Kendall chuckled and fell back against the cushions of the sofa. "Whatever, guys. Today? That was worth. It." He grinned. "We should turn off the hot water to the girls' lockers tomorrow."

"You're terrible." Logan shook his head.

"Logan's in," Kendall declared easily.

"Hey!" 

"Gotcha!" Kendall teased.

"All of you just shut up, okay?" Carlos moaned.

Kendall unmuted the television as a video of Nicole Scherzinger's latest song came up on the channel. He sighed and leaned back against the cushions. "She makes the pain go away, you guys." 

"I'm going to marry her someday," James declared.

Logan tossed the icepack he was holding against his head onto the coffeetable. "You're gonna marry Nicole Scherzinger?" He scoffed. "How?"

Kendall and Carlos both cried out, "No no no no!" but James was already started. He leaped up onto the coffee table. "I'm gonna be _famous_. Sing to sold out arenas, have like _five_ houses, make the _girls go crazy_ ," he added, singing and doing a quick spin on the table. "And then," he said, pausing for dramatic effect and to shake his hair out of his eyes, "I'll marry Nicole."

Logan shot him a flat look. "Are you done? Please be done."

"No, 'cause here's the part where I _shake my booty!_ " James leaped next to Logan on the sofa and did exactly as he had threatened, shaking his legs and singing a made-up-on-the-spot song about marrying Nicole while Logan made disgusted go-away-now faces. 

Kendall rolled his eyes. "Carlos?"

"Got it." He pulled on his helmet, tapped it twice, and tackled James over the back of the sofa, onto the ground, where they proceeded to tussle. Kendall and Logan watched, sharing a grin as the two pummeled one another. 

A reporter’s talking head popped up. "And in other news, renowned record producer, Gustavo Rocque, has been charged with 500 hours of community service after pleading guilty to an aggravated assault charge. The middle-aged LA native was caught defacing Matthew McConagey's mailbox at the actor's winter home near Bloomington, Minnesota, located a short distance from the Hyland Hills Ski Resort."

James stopped fighting and popped up. "Hey, I know that guy. He was the one who discovered Boyquake and Boys in the Attic." He pulled out a magazine clipping. "He said he could teach a dog to sing. I sing better than a dog!" 

Kendall rolled his eyes and shushed James. Onscreen, the anchor turned to a different camera. "Our reports indicate that he is to recruit for and coach a Junior Pro charity hockey team here in our own Minnesota. If you are a junior pro hockey player in Lyon, Redwood, Brown, or Renville County, and are not currently part of a club hockey team, you're eligible to try out for the team."

Kendall sat forward. "M-m-me! I am! Me!" He pointed at himself and reached out to shake Logan. Carlos also popped up from behind the sofa, tussle forgotten.

"Those interested should come to the Messers Cola Nova Rink on the 22nd and try out. It will be his last stop on his recruiting tour before he heads to Little Falls to help organize the summer season." The camera cut to a different story, but Kendall hit the mute button.

"We have to go do that," Kendall started.

"Heck yes we do," James cried out, vaulting the back of the sofa and bouncing on the cushions. "He's a producer! Forget hockey, I could sing for the guy."

"Singing? Forget hockey? Dude, this is _my dream_. You know I've wanted to play center for the Minnesota Wild since I was, like, four and we were learning to skate." 

James sobered and leaped onto the ground, giving Kendall a long look. "Okay," he said, and then beamed. "Guys, let's go make Kendall's dream come true."

&&&

The next several days' practice was grueling, with Kendall basically playing 3-on-1 against his friends. They spent hours on the ice, Kendall perfecting his snap shot while James and Carlos kept him agile and fast, forcing him into tough positions where he had to hold onto the puck at any cost...even if that meant bruising Carlos's shoulder.

Logan, in turn, was a wall, blocking puck after puck that Kendall shot at him until, finally, the day before the tryout, Kendall managed to sink one through the five-hole and into the net. The other three immediately abandoned their sticks and swarmed Kendall, hooting and cheering and hugging him.

That night, Kendall found himself unable to sleep and laid out on the couch, a single table lamp his only light source. He stared at the ceiling of their small home, eyes tracing the knockdown texturing on the ceiling. 

Suddenly, as if from above, a face appeared, a long brown ponytail dangling over her shoulder. "Couldn't sleep, big brother?"

Kendall shuffled over so that Katie could perch on the cushion, at his side. "Yeah," he replied, folding his arms across his chest and lacing his fingers. "Nerves, I guess." 

Katie made a scoffing noise. "Please. You'll be fine."

He shot her a grin. "That's easy enough for you to say. You're not the one hitting the ice tomorrow." 

She shoved him none-too-gently, then stretched out beside him. The old couch was ancient, older than Kendall, and beat. It had once been velour or courduroy or something, but the texture had long since faded, and the slipcover was jersey-soft linen, probably from Bullseye. It was still overstuffed and still the most comfortable thing Kendall had ever accidentally fallen asleep on.

"You'll be fine," she said again, and squeezed his hand. "You're amazing at hockey, and this is your dream." She smiled and tucked herself against him. "You don't give up, and you get what you want."

"Good old Knight family tenacity." He smoothed her hair and pulled her close in a half-hug. "Thanks, baby sis."

"Anytime." She paused. "Plus, if you get famous, I get 15% of all merchandising." 

He chuckled and reached up to turn off the lamp.

&&&

Messers Cola Nova Rink was a regulation sized rink that was sponsored by the local soda bottler. It was probably the newest rink in the tri-county area, and the co-op high school hockey team they played for shared it with their various rival schools, hence why the rink bore no native logo at center ice.

Kendall's mom had driven them over on her way to work. "Be good, kids. And Kendall, sweetie?" He turned to look her in the eye and she grinned. "Knock 'em dead!" She zipped out of the park, minivan's back wheels squeaking against the concrete. 

Logan adjusted the strap of his duffle. "I can't believe you're making us try out, too."

"Uh, of course I am? You guys are my best friends. I need moral support on the ice, not in the stands."

"But that's what the stands are for! So that people can _stand_ behind you." Logan pouted. 

James rolled his eyes. "Logan, shut up and change." 

The lobby was crowded with young guys -- and a few ladies -- milling about, half-dressed in gear. In the middle, near the lace-up area was a woman dressed in late-winter attire poring over a clipboard. Her nametag read, KELLY.

Kendall sauntered up to her, the other three close behind. "Hi," he started. "We're here to try out." 

She looked up at them, eyeing all of them very carefully. Then, she pulled up four clipboards and handed them to the four. "Fill these out and get your pads on." She slapped a vinyl numbered square into Logan's chest. "You're up first." She handed the others their numbers. Kendall looked at his with a mix of anticipation and apprehension.

Number 812.

They suited up, strapping on padding and skates in nervous silence. Kendall hadn't felt this tense when he had tried for the varsity team. He felt his hands shaking as he tightened the Velcro straps of his gloves. Grabbing their sticks, they shuffled out into the players bench area, waiting for their number to be called.

After half an hour and seeing six other players skate off the ice in near-tears, Gustavo's admonishments ringing in their ears and in the rafters, the four of them traded looks. Then: "Number 810!" the woman's voice blared over the PA. 

Logan looked at the other three, face somewhat pale. "Kendall, you've always got a plan. What's the plan?"

"I don't always have a--" His expression froze. "Just keep your stick down and your eyes open." 

Logan shot him a look that was equal parts affection and exasperation. "Thanks, Cap," he said, then snapped down his face shield and skated over to the goalie's net. 

"Logan Mitchell, 16, goaltender, " Kelly's voice announced.

Logan crouched down, tapped his goalie's stick twice, and flexed his catcher's glove.

"GO!" Gustavo hollered.

A lineup of five players -- by the looks of it, two defencemen and three forwards -- began launching pucks at Logan, who managed to block most of the them. One of the defensemen signaled and the others moved back. He wound up and performed a textbook-perfect slapshot. Logan fell into a butterfly position, knees splayed on the ice, but his foot missed the puck and it slid through to clang against the goal frame. 

"Save percentage, 84%," Gustavo called out. Logan stood, pulled his mask up, and skated to center ice in order to face Gustavo, who was seated at the scorekeeper's bench. "I thought goalies were supposed to be _walls_ , not Swiss cheese!" He looked up at Logan. "Well? Get off my ice!" 

Logan, confused, skated back to the boards and clambered into the bench area. "Those were the longest ten minutes of my life," he said. 

Carlos thumped him on the shoulder, then grabbed his stick and skated out. He did a lap or two around the ice before stopping at the center face-off circle.

Kelly spoke into a mic, Carlos's filled-out form in front of her. "Carlos Garcia. 16, left wing," she read out, then stepped back. Unsure, Carlos beamed at Gustavo. 

Gustavo pulled his rose-tinted shades down his nose and glared over the tops of them at Carlos. "START SKATING!"

Carlos tapped his helmet and began treating the tryout’s defencemen like a slalom course, weaving through them, puck fully in his control. With a flick of his wrist, he shot it into the net, snapping it through stick-side low without breaking a sweat. From there the tryout tested his agility, resilience, and passing, putting him through his paces. In the end, he looped back to center ice, sweaty and slightly roughed up, stick clutched in his hands. He met Gustavo's gaze directly and beamed.

"You skate like a _skier_. If I wanted Picabo Street, I'd have called her up, not some wannabe halfway hockey player. Get off my ice."

Carlos blinked.

"I said, get _off_ my _ice_." Gustavo shouted, then sat back down.

In a daze, Carlos clambered back onto the bench. "I don't even know what happened. Guess I'm not going to Little Falls." He shrugged and pulled off his gloves.

Kelly stuck her head over the boards. "Number 812, you're up." 

Kendall felt his stomach drop out. He reached for James's number, but James stopped him. "James, c'mon--"

"Kendall," James cut him off. "This is _your_ dream, not mine." He cuffed him on the shoulder and pulled him up to stand, looking him in the eye. "Remember: opportunities like this come once in a _lifetime_." He grabbed his shoulders and shook Kendall. "Now, grab onto that dream with both hands, and go big time." He grinned and let Kendall go. 

Kendall raised an eyebrow as he pulled on his helmet. "I thought the inspirational speeches were my thing?"

James shrugged. "I'm the only one tall enough to make you do stuff." He smirked and shoved Kendall over the lip of the barrier and onto the ice. Kendall recovered, grabbed his stick, and skated out, heart pounding like a drum in his ribcage. He circled the ice twice, then once more to warm up and to calm down. Despite the cool air rushing over his skin and catching on his jersey, he felt no solace. 

Realizing he was stalling, he glided over to center ice and stood at attention. 

"Number 812. Kendall Knight, 16, Center." Kendall nodded, then turned to his tryout team: two wings, two defensemen, and a goalie who tapped his stick in a salute. He turned to the face-off circle and got into position, squaring off against his counterpart. The whistle blew and he exploded into action.

Despite crowding, serious pressure, and smart players, Kendall kept his cool, his entire world narrowed down to the puck and the ice and his stick. Deftly, he rotated his arm and flicked his wrist, passing the puck between his feet to get to his open companion. His opposition’s defensive line proved nigh impenetrable, so he used the advantages he could find. The play turned rough, with Kendall feeling elbows and crowding more and more. Without looking, he passed to his right-wing, who was exactly where he expected her, and broke free of his guard detail. Twice he forced a foul without giving up possession. They had him face off again and again, each time pressing in closer, taking the situation slightly more extreme with each face-off.

When the buzzer went off seven minutes later, his team was 1-0 and Kendall could feel every inch of his clothing sticking to him. He disengaged from the team and skated to center court, feeling drained and alive. 

"That," Gustavo started, standing up. "Was the worst skating I have ever seen."

Kendall's eyes widened. He felt his grip go slack on his stick. "What?"

"Terrible!" Gustavo ranted. "The total bottom of the barrel. If I wanted a center like you, I'd just go pick up some schmuck skating on the pond he made in his backyard." 

"Hey, Mr. Leventhal's backyard rink was totally rad," Carlos muttered.

"Shut up, Carlos," James and Logan chorused. 

"But--but I'm _good!_ " Kendall retorted fiercely, smacking his stick against the ice in frustration. "I'm really good!"

"I don't _need_ good," Gustavo shouted, voice echoing. "I need _the fire_. Okay? I need someone to knock me outta my seat, and as you can tell, I'm still in it. Why? Because you? Have _no talent!_ " 

Kendall could feel his entire world spinning, his knees feeling weak and his hands going numb.

Suddenly, James leaped up from the bench. "No talent?" He thumped to the gap in the boards and skated smoothly to center ice. "No talent? You're the one with no talent!" He brandished his stick at Gustavo before lowering it to the ice again, habit ingrained after six years of hockey practices and drills. "You're only here because you destroyed Matthew McConaughey's mailbox. Why were you even _at_ his winter home?" James tossed his head back in an imperious gesture that Kendall recognized all too well from years of arguments and fights. 

"Hey! That man is a disgrace to actors everywhere." Gustavo looked positively apoplectic.

"Whatever. Would you even know what makes a good forward? You're a _producer_ , you write songs. What the hell would you know about puck handling?" He skated around the rink deftly moving the puck from edge to edge, weaving between cones smoothly, working through the entire tryout for a forward. He spun around tightly, shouting, "What about me? Do I have no talent?" He skidded to a halt and snapped the puck into the goal. It clanged against the supports, causing Gustavo to fall out of his chair. The sound rang in the rafters.

Breathing hard, he skated over to Gustavo, who scrambled to get back on his feet. As he reached the boards, Gustavo puffed up. James faked a sudden movement and Gustavo scrambled back, falling over the chair.

Kelly came dashing over. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?! Security!"

Kendall, still standing at center ice, made a quiet whimpering noise. James glanced back at him briefly before turning back to glare at Gustavo. "You're a producer, right? Produce this!" He took a deep breath and half-sang, half hollered, "Oh you're such a turd! Oh yeah, a giant turd -- and you look like a turd and you smell like a turd!" 

Suddenly, two large, burly dudes in hockey gear and yellow security jackets grabbed James by the arms. "Hey, let go of me, c'mon! Get off me!" James tried to wrench himself out of their grip, but they ended up disarming him instead. 

In the players bench area, Carlos turned to Logan. "Quick! What's the worst that could happen if I try and break him free?"

Logan's eyes widened. "Uh, uh, juvenile, one prior for mooning, community service?"

Carlos nodded. "I can live with that." He tapped his helmet and vaulted the boards with a battle cry.

"Aw c'mon," Logan muttered, and then followed suit, both of them skating at the guys, who were quickly joined by a handful of other, burly fellas in yellow. 

Kendall, watching the scene unfold, carefully set down his hockey stick, checked the tightness of his gloves, and then launched himself at the tangle of limbs and skates with a battle cry of his own.

&&&

Mrs. Knight knew it was bad when the doorbell ringing was accompanied by the flashing lights of police cars. She took a breath to steady herself and opened the door.

"Mom!" Kendall greeted her cheerfully. The four of them were clearly in police custody, dressed in their street clothes with their hockey bags slumped on the porch. "Remember that time I saved you from choking? Wow that was close." His expression turned earnest. "And I love you." 

She bit back a sigh. "Officers, thank you for bringing my son and his idiot friends home safely. Is there anything more you need?"

"No ma'am. They started a brawl at the Messers Cola Rink, but the security staff have chosen not to press charges." The taller police officer tipped his hat, then he and his partner walked back to their car.

"Oh, man, that was--"

"Inside, now." Her voice was flat and she pulled open the door and pointed inside without much preamble. Dejected, the four of them shuffled into the house, piling their stuff in a corner, and lined up in front of the fireplace, expressions not unlike they were facing their executioner. 

She braced one arm on her hip and shot them all a flat look. "What happened? The truth." She raised an eyebrow. "Now." 

"Once we got to the tryout, it all seemed pretty normal," Logan started.

"But the coach, this producer guy, he was super mean to everyone," Carlos added. 

James cut in. "So I sang him the giant turd song and we all got into a tiny fight -- but no one got hurt." 

Kendall, shoulders slumped, stared resolutely at the floor. "And now I'm really sad." 

She seemed to take this all in. Beside her, Katie looked gleeful. "Okay," she said, nodding. "Who wants a sandwich?" 

All four of them perked up and raised their hands. "Me!" they chorused, and followed her into the kitchen. 

"Wait!" Katie did not look amused. "That's it? _That's_ your interrogation? You didn't put the screws to them or slap 'em with the hard cheese." 

Mrs. Knight sported a blank look for a half-second. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you're not allowed to watch Fox anymore." She grinned and pushed past the guys into the kitchen.

Katie resisted rolling her eyes. "Well, can I at least hear the giant turd song?" 

The four of them paused, turned, and shrugged. "Yeah, okay," James said, and the four of them sang through the chorus in unison, punching each other in the arm as they went along. The doorbell rang and they headed toward it as a pack, still singing through the song.

However, when the door opened, it was Gustavo on the porch. The song cut off abruptly as they all shrieked.

Gustavo waggled his fingers in the semblance of the wave. Kelly's smile was as winning as it could be. "We need to talk," Gustavo said ominously. 

Kendall's expression was somewhere between outright rage and deliberately neutral, but he stepped aside and let Gustavo in. Behind them, Katie's footsteps pattered into the kitchen, where she was clearly interrupting her mom to mention the guest. 

They sat Gustavo in the living room, Mrs. Knight serving tea before seating herself on the couch. Kendall and Katie sat to one side of her while the other three piled on the other side and onto the nearby chair. 

"Mrs. Knight, I'm sorry to bother you so late, but the other three boys' parents told me I could find them here." Surprising everyone, Gustavo seemed to be well-behaved. Standing beside and slightly behind him was Kelly, her purse slung over one shoulder and her expression encouraging.

"It's fine, Mr. Rocque--"

"Call me Gustavo, please." He took a delicate sip of his tea.

"Right, Gustavo." She smiled politely. "What can I help you with?"

"Actually, it's your son's friends I need. I'd like them for my youth premier hockey team."

"His...friends?" She sounded faint. Beside her, Kendall's lips thinned and his expression turned stormy.

"You want the three of us to play hockey on your special team?" Logan sounded skeptical. Carlos and James traded disbelieving looks.

Kelly jumped in. "We'll drive you all out to Little Falls, Minnesota, where you'll officially be a player for the American Hockey Union. We'll have all the teams housed in a central training location. It'll take three months of games and tournaments this summer, and we'll take care of all of your expenses." 

"Logan," Gustavo started. "You three have a gift -- the _fire_. You all have what it takes to make my -- uh, _our_ \-- team great. I need a goalie like you, and I've never seen wingmen like Carlos and James." He turned his attention to James. " _Some_ of you also have anger management issues. But then, people say the same about me and I have _FIVE HOUSES_ , so." He took a breath.

Kendall stood up and walked out of the room. 

Kelly broke the silence. "Guys, we've traveled to 22 townships. We've held tryouts for nearly a thousand players at your level. We picked you three for our roster."

The three of them looked back. "But we're a team, the _four_ of us," Carlos said quietly. 

"My dream's to be a singer, not a hockey player," James added, shaking his hair out of his eyes.

"And I'm going to be a doctor," Logan finished. "High school hockey is for my college applications, not for anything serious." 

"Well, now you have the chance to be on a new team. Your moms have all signed off, if you three say yes." He peered over his glasses. "Especially you, James. With your moves, and the way you handled that puck, I could really use you." 

"What do you say?" Kelly beamed, hopeful.

The three of them glanced at each other. "No," the chorused.

Gustavo broke the teacup in his hand. 

Katie started laughing. 

Gustavo set the saucer and the remaining shards of the teacup down on the coffeetable. "I'm going to take a minute. Imma take a minute right now." He stood up and walked out the front door.

Kelly stepped forward and thumbed through a wad of cash. "This is for the teacup..." The sounds of destruction increased. "...And the planter outside..." A car alarm started wailing. She sighed and tossed down the entire wad. Then, reaching into her purse, she handed James a small, white rectangle. "Here's my card. If you three change your minds, call." She took a breath. "You should _think_ about this, guys. We leave tomorrow at two." 

The next day, Kendall listlessly pushed carts back into their corral while the guys sat on a low, concrete wall and watched him. 

Carlos cleared his throat. "Uh, hey man, you okay?"

"My best shot at becoming a pro hockey player comes and, instead of taking me, they take my friends who don't want it at all? Yeah, I'm fine." 

Carlos leaned over to Logan. "I sense sarcasm," he stage whispered. Logan smacked him upside the head.

Logan sighed. "Look, Kendall, we weren't going to leave you. You're our captain, our leader. How could we do this without you?" 

Kendall ignored them and sent more carts into the chute. 

"Hey!" Carlos leaped down and grabbed Kendall's arm. "You're our _best friend_ , okay? No way we were going to leave you behind. That goes against the code. You know that." 

Kendall wrenched his arm out of his grip and stalked off, pulling his hat lower over his ears. 

"What about me?" James hopped down and walked slowly towards Kendall. "You haven't said a word to me all day." 

"I'm not talking to you," Kendall muttered.

"You just did," Logan and Carlos chorused.

Kendall rubbed his face in frustration. "Gah, okay. Fine. Look, James, part of me? Hates you right now. But the rest of me? Thinks you should go for it. You're a phenomenal hockey player. There's no better right wing than you in the division. This could be _it_ for you, man."

"But it's not my dream," James retorted, pulling out his lucky comb to fiddle with it. "It's _yours_. I would never take that away from you."

"Whatever," Kendall said, and pushed past to retrieve another cart.

James pulled back on his arm. "Don't," James said, and turned Kendall around to face the three of them.

Kendall rolled his eyes. "Just shut up and call them back." He eyed the corral. "If I make a hole in one, you _have_ to call them back. Deal?"

"You're saying if you had the chance to go to play for the AHU," Logan started.

"With a giant turd coach who's only doing it for the community service hours," Carlos added.

James squinted at him. "You'd do it?"

"In a heartbeat," Kendall replied simply.

The three of them shared a look. "Deal," they chorused.

Kendall gripped the cart, looked both ways, then launched it. It rolled, wobbling only slightly, into the corral behind another buggy. 

"Okay, then." James pulled out his cell and Kelly's card.

A little while later, a large white stretch limo pulled up into the grocery store parking lot, where the four of them were waiting. James stood in the center, with Carlos and Logan flanking him. Slightly behind them was Kendall, who did his best to look nonchalant.

Gustavo stalked up to them, Kelly at his side. "WELL?"

"Okay," James said. "We're in."

Kelly beamed.

" _If_ ," Logan interjected. "You take all _four_ of us."

"And you make Kendall your center!" Carlos added, expression oddly solemn.

Kendall made sputtering, choking noises from behind them.

Gustavo pulled off his shades. "I'm sorry, are you trying to make a deal with me? I MAKE THE DEALS!" 

James tilted his chin up slightly. "If you want me? Then you have to take all of us." 

Gustavo started to laugh hysterically. "Have you seen your friend skate? He's the worst center I've seen. He can't be my team lead. Absolutely not! If you think for one second that I'm so desperate for skating talent to fill my roster so that I can just do this thing and get out of the hellhole that is Minnesota, then you can _think again_ , because there is no way -- NO WAY -- Gustavo Rocque is going to be strong-armed into taking the four of you from _Olivia_ to Little Falls in order to make you some of the best hockey players in Minnesota." 

James smirked. "So, we have a deal?" Behind him, Kendall's face was slowly lighting up. 

Gustavo shrugged. "Yup."


	2. Chapter 2

** PART TWO: LITTLE FALLS **

The bus doors opened and the four of them stumbled out, followed by Kendall's mom and sister. 

"I can't believe summer came that fast," Logan commented, hefting his bag on his shoulder as he disembarked.

"This is basically going to be amazing," Carlos said, rubbing his hands together.

"Guys," Kendall said, raising his arms and turning around. "We have to promise we won't allow this place to change us, okay?"

The other three shot him a look. "What does that even mean?" Logan folded his arms over his chest.

"I'm just saying, this is going to be one of our most competitive seasons we've ever had to face, against players who've been playing club hockey instead of MSHSL. We have to remember who we are, no matter what happens, okay?"

The four of them grinned and placed their hands in the center and cheered. 

Mrs. Knight shook her head. "You guys done? I'd like to check in." 

The six of them trooped to the front desk, where a heavyset man in a square haircut greeted them with something approaching -- but not quite reaching -- a smile. His badge read, BITTERS, MANAGER in slightly discolored false brass. "Welcome to the Cedar Woods, home of future Olympians and pro athletes." 

"Checking in for the, uh, Raiders. We're an AHU team." 

"Of course." He turned to his computer, did some rapid typing, and pulled out a set of keys. "You'll be in apartment 2J. Enjoy your stay with us." He smiled, somewhat simpering, and turned away. The guys raced upstairs, taking the stairs and stumbled into the room as Mrs. Knight held the door open for them.

The place was bright, with twelve-foot ceilings and large windows overlooking the river. It was also decently furnished, with a comfortably beaten sofa, a mounted television, shelves, and a full kitchen. In the lofted space were two sets of bunk beds and a powder room. Downstairs, near the kitchen, was a full bath. While most of the furniture was modular and fairly utilitarian, the place was nice. 

"Well, kids," Mrs. Knight set her bag down in the kitchen. "Looks like this is home for the next three months." 

The four of them straightened up, fully clad in hockey gear and the maroon and gold of their high school hockey jerseys, brandishing hockey sticks and their skates. "To the rink!" they cried in unison, then stomped out the door and down the stairs. 

The rink was located across the square, in the massive building that they quickly realized was an arena. The arches holding up the domed roof gleamed in the midday light, and the building seemed to loom before them.

"Ahem? Either move or gawk to the side." The four of them turned around and saw three willowy teenage girls, clad in leggings, leg warmers, and long sweaters, shooting them identical expressions of disdain. 

The four of them stepped aside in unison, letting the the girls saunter past, all of them flicking a lock of hair over their shoulders at the same time. 

"Who are those girls?" Carlos sounded like he was in a daze.

"Those three? They're The Jennifers," came a rough, young voice from nearby. The four of them whipped around to see a shorter, cheerfully chubby redheaded boy pop out of an empty recycling bin.

"Gah!" they all cried, jumping away.

"It's cool, guys," he said, climbing out. Kendall and Carlos gave him a hand and helped him stand. "I'm Tyler, I'm here to play hockey."

The four of them looked at each other. "Aren't you a bit young to be playing against high schoolers?"

He grinned. "I play for the junior high league. C'mon, I'll show you guys around." He stepped forward, grabbing his backpack from behind some bushes, and led the way to the entrance of the arena.

"So this is the auxillary training rink," he said, holding the door open for them.

"Wait, _auxillary_ rink?" Logan's eyebrows threatened to disappear into his hair. 

"Yeah," Tyler replied, nonchalant, as he led them past the front desk where a young man wearing shades and strumming a guitar was lounging. "The main rink is on the north side of town, at the narrow point of the lake. It's pretty cool." He turned a corner and gestured grandly. "Boys locker room." He grinned. "There should already be lockers and stuff marked out for you guys." He waved and wandered away, ducking down a nondescript hallway a little further down.

"TYLER!" A shrill, matronly voice cried out. The four of them turned around to see a woman with a marked resemblance to their new redheaded friend hustling towards them. "Have you boys seen my Tyler? He's due for a ballet class soon!"

The four of them traded a look. "Ballet class?" they asked in unison.

She nodded emphatically. "It's to make him a better hockey player!" She looked around frantically. "Oh, have you seen him?"

The four of them pointed in the opposite direction Tyler had headed. "He went that way," they chorused. 

She beamed gratefully and bustled off. 

The four of them chuckled and filed into the locker room. Inside, the place was largely empty, with only a few other young men scattered about, most changing back into street clothes. The lockers were blue, with a notecard indicating team affiliation, assigned owner, and position taped to the front. The four of them found theirs in the back corner, shared against a wall with 2 more. Their team logo was a trio of crossed swords, two sabers and a rapier. It made a simple star pattern that was pretty easily distinguished from the various lineart animals. 

"Man, this is nicer than the rink back home," James commented, opening his designated locker. Beneath his name was an emblazoned RW. Inside was a full uniform set, helmet, a roll of tape, a few towels, and a couple of coathangers. On the inside of the door was tacked a mirror, which James immediately began using to comb and adjust his hair. 

"Yeah," Logan replied sarcastically. "This place doesn't smell like mold and 25 years of sweaty hockey players." He pulled open his locker, which was slightly larger than theirs, and began stripping off his street clothes. The notecard, bearing a large G on the front, glinted slightly in the fluorescent lights. "Stop styling yourself and put on your gear." 

Kendall laughed and pulled open his locker, bearing the large letter C on the front, and proceeded to change lightning-fast. He was lacing up his skates as Carlos was contemplating helmets.

"Helmet," he said solemnly, clutching his friend in his hands. "I love you, but I'm going to have to play with this other one sometimes. I hope you can understand."

Kendall made a face. "Yeah, I'm going to warm up. Meet you guys out there." Already in his hockey skates, he awkwardly frog-marched out the far door, where the players bench was located, and stumbled out into the cold air.

The rink was quiet and as familiar to Kendall as breathing. He took a deep breath and stepped out onto the ice, skating laps in zenlike silence. He crossed over at each end, one leg in front of the other, and kept his stick low. Swiftly, he spun around, momentum carrying him onwards so that he was skating backwards, form still good. Twelve years of hockey practices, and he could do this in his sleep. In fact, he had, though his friends were sworn to secrecy about that time. 

He skidded to a stop, then reached over the boards and grabbed a stack of pucks from a basket. Tossing them onto the ice, he took one and began skating around the rink, deftly handling the puck as he skated in circles and zig-zags and loops, backwards and forwards, the satisfying _thwok_ echoing in the arena with each tap of his stick. 

The sound of commotion heralded the arrival of the other three. They stepped onto the ice without breaking their stride and skated laps, Carlos skating in counter-circles to mess with the other two while Logan buckled down in the crease, stick flat on the ice and flexing his glove in preparation. 

The four of them set to scrimmaging, Carlos playing temp goaltender for the opposition while Kendall and James faced off at center ice. 

Kendall smirked. "You still think you can beat me?"

James tilted his head up and shot back a superior look. 

Kendall rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up." They tapped their sticks together three times and James took possession. 

The game was no-holds barred, with James and Kendall going all-out against each other until the score was forgotten, and the four of them were laid out at center ice, sticks abandoned somewhere nearby, their rapid panting clouding the cold air.

"We haven't played like that in a month," James commented, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

Logan groaned. "Yeah, well, I for one haven't missed your slap shot." He rubbed his shoulder awkwardly. 

"Maybe you DOGS are going to be good for something after all." The four of them scrambled to their feet and saw Gustavo descending the stairs, his various bling items glittering madly. He leaned against the boards by the scorekeeper's bench. Up at the top of the staircase was an impatient-looking Kelly. "I saw your little game," he said, gesturing vaguely with one ring-laden hand. "So maybe bringing ALL of you on wasn't such a bad idea." He leveled a look at the four of them, somehow looking down on them despite being roughly Logan's height. "First practice is tomorrow at 10:30. Don't be late." He headed back up the stairs. Before he left the arena, he paused and looked over his shoulder. "You'll be meeting your teammates for the first time. Try not to look too stupid, will you?" He smirked and walked out, a clearly exasperated Kelly steps behind him.

The four of them exchange looks. "Teammates, huh." Carlos tapped his helmet. "It'll be fine."

&&&

The lineup of people was more varied than Kendall had expected.

"There's girls!" Carlos exclaimed, getting excited.

"Easy, tiger," James interrupted, grabbing Carlos's shoulder. "She's on our team. No hitting on her until you see how her slap shot is."

Carlos nodded in understanding. "Rule 46."

" _Exactly_."

Logan rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You guys recognize some of 'em, right?"

"Yeah," Kendall replied, narrowing his eyes. "I faced off against #4 once in peewee hockey. And I think #53 plays for the Stingrays during the regular season." 

James surveyed the clump of people. "Well, none of them is as good looking as I am." He beamed and made spirit fingers.

Logan thumped him in the arm. "Would you be serious? These are supposedly some of the best players from our part of the state. Stands to reason we'd know some of 'em?"

Kendall shrugged. "Well, standing here isn't going to make this any easier. Come on." They skated out towards the rest, sticks gripped in loose hands and posture relaxed. The others eyed them with something like suspicion, but that was expected. Carlos guilelessly stared back at the gathered group, expression blank. 

"TEAM!" The whole crowd jumped, startled, as Gustavo walked out onto the ice, voice booming. "Welcome to the American Hockey Union season." His false cheer immediately drained out of him. "Listen, I don't want to be here, and you all probably want to get out for summer vacation. So let's just all get through practice without any incidents and we can all be on our way, okay?"

A few people shifted from foot to foot, awkwardly. 

Kelly stepped up from behind with a clipboard. "Okay, I'm going to call your name and sweater number, respond with your position. Malik Farzhal, #1?" 

A dark-skinned young man with very forward features and close-cropped curly hair raised his hand. "Forward, left wing." 

"John Standmark, #2."

A dark-haired, square-jawed young man with deep-set eyes raised his hand slightly. "Defenceman." 

Kelly smiled at him. "Seamus Davenport, #4." 

A redhead with a thick smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks beamed. "Power forward, ma'am." 

"My mom's the ma'am, I'm just Kelly." She grinned and checked her list. "Robbie MacIntyre, #5?"

A slim figure with a youthful face raised a hand. Large blue eyes were set in long lashes, the short haircut clearly cut to stun the onlooker. A soft, medium-timbered voice responded, "Forward, right wing." 

Carlos inelegantly nudged Logan. "Is Robbie a boy or girl?"

Logan shoved Carlos. "Does it really matter?"

Caught off-guard, he paused to ponder that question for a split second. "I guess not." Carlos shrugged. "Kinda skinny for a right wing."

"So is James," Kendall cut in.

"Hey!" James looked affronted.

Kelly's voice cut into their conversation. "Alexei Samilov, #11?" 

A blonde-haired, wide-shouldered young man raised his gloved hand. "That's me, name's Alex. I'm a defenceman." 

Kelly scribbled down Alex's preferred moniker, then scanned to the next name. "Sergei Lanovoy, #13?"

"My lucky number," said a brown-haired guy who towered over James. His pointed chin was offset by his giant grin. "I go by Sarge, by the way. I'm a forward, enforcer-style."

"Good to know. Timi Hsu? #15?"

A lean, sharp-featured young man with shaggy black hair tilted his chin up. "That's me. Forward, right wing."

"Will Yates, #20?"

A young man in full goalie gear tapped his stick. "Goalie," he replied succinctly. He was solidly built and stood a head taller than Logan.

Logan gulped. "I think I'm second string," he stage-whispered.

"Shut up and we'll find out," Kendall hissed, clapping his friend on the shoulder.

"Lena Montoya, #21."

A golden-skinned girl with bright hazel eyes and a smirking smile flipped her ponytail and gave a half-wave. "Defenceman." 

"Carlos Garcia, #22."

Carlos straightened up. "Left wing!" He tapped his helmet twice and puffed up with pride. 

Kelly nodded and checked the next name. Carlos deflated like a balloon. "Makoto Quigley, #24." 

A young man with a green mohawk and pierced ears raised his hand. "Forward," he replied, deep-voiced. His eyes were large, he was medium tall, and he bore one dimple that came out as he half-smiled. "I go by Koto." 

"Omar Sanchez, #32."

A medium-toned young man stepped forward, his head shaved bald. His features were striking; his large mouth and small nose were complemented by large eyes with long, dark lashes. He bore crystal studs in both ears, which glittered slightly when he turned his head. "Defenceman."

"Logan Mitchell, #33."

"Here!" Logan called out, voice breaking at the last second. He cleared his throat, embarrassed, and continued, voice pitched deeper. "Goalie." 

"Aaron Paul, #34?"

A darker-skinned young man with close-cropped black hair and a tall, thin face raised his hand. His thick eyebrows, neat but large, were his most striking feature. "Defenceman."

"David Kasson, #40?"

A stocky kid with five-o-clock shadow raised his hand. "Forward."

"Sam Lennartson, #42." 

A fair-skinned young man with an oval face and a heavy brow raised his chin slightly. "Left wing." 

"Bethany Petersen, #44."

A blond girl with squinty blue-green eyes grinned. Her hair was done in French braided pigtails, disappearing under the back of her sweater. "Defenceman. I go by Bam-Bam."

"Bam-Bam? Why?" Kelly looked honestly confused.

"I play rough," she retorted simply, then flashed white teeth again. 

"Fair enough." Kelly made a note on her roster. "Josh Medek, #45?"

"Here," he replied. He had sandy hair and broad shoulders. His voice was quiet. "I'm a defenceman and a goalie, as needed." 

"Damian Robinette, #53."

A dark-skinned young man with golden eyes and an easy smile nodded in acknowledgement. He was about James's height, but clearly more solidly built. "Power forward."

"James Diamond, #54."

"Here," James called. "Right wing."

"And, Kendall Knight, #55."

"Here," Kendall responded, voice strangely clear in the arena. "Center and power forward."

"GREAT," Gustavo bellowed. "Now that I'm awake from that snoozefest, let me make a few things clear. I don't like hockey, and I especially hate Minnesota. I'm only here because of a court order, and I don't care what you all do, just don't bother me."

"Gustavo," Kelly started, her voice exasperated. This was clearly a conversation he'd been having with her for a while. 

He ignored her. "So just skate around your little rink here and don't get into trouble." He made a waving, dismissive gesture with his hand and stomped off to the coaches' office. 

Kelly gaped at where Gustavo had been. "Uh, he didn't really mean that." She shot them a reassuring smile, then raced after him. "Gustavo!" she shouted, her voice fading out as she ran.

The twenty of them looked at each other awkwardly, still in clumps of three to four players on the ice. Kendall contemplated his stick before making a decision.

"Well, since we're all here and in our gear...how about we practice?"

Lena tossed her head back haughtily. "And who left you in charge?"

Kendall shrugged. "No one," he replied honestly, then smiled sheepishly at her. "But we're supposed to be some of the best. I can't help it. I wanna see everyone in action." 

She grinned, Bam-Bam behind her mirroring her expression. "You wanna see me play, Big Guy?"

James pouted. "Why is he Big Guy? Half this team is Kendall's height."

Lena ignored him and tilted her head to the side. "Bring it on."

Kendall beamed. "I'd hoped you would say that." He pulled back and clapped his hands. "Carlos, get the forwards warmed up. Logan, you and...Will?" Will nodded. "You and Will get warmed up and in position. Alex, think you can get the defencemen ready to go?" Kendall shrugged. "If nothing else, a little skating never hurt anyone."

Two hours later, they all trudged off the ice, a few defencemen limping but fistbumping regardless. Everyone was soaked through with sweat, Kendall no exception, as the caravan shuffled into their respective locker rooms. 

They were showered and dressing at their lockers within a half hour, pulling on their street clothes as they chatted with one another.

"That was fun, right?" James bounced on the balls of his feet as he pulled on his lucky white v-neck shirt and fluffed his hair. "Like _Cyan vs. Magenta_ up in here."

Carlos punched him in the arm. 

"Ow!" James straightened his clothes and then leaped at Carlos, the two of them tussling on the floor. 

Logan shrugged and hung up his equipment properly. "I don't know. All we did was warm up. And Gustavo looked like he couldn't care less.”

Kendall patted Logan reassuringly on the shoulder. "Dude, it'll be okay. He's gotta buck up and step up to the plate sometime, right?"

James and Carlos stood up suddenly, straightening their clothes. "Famous last words," they chimed, shooting Kendall eerily similar looks of disdain.

Kendall suddenly had a very bad feeling.

&&&

The next week and a half was filled with practices where it was eminently clear that Gustavo couldn't be bothered to care about his coaching responsibilities. He showed up long enough to take roll with Kelly, tell everyone they were free to do whatever they wanted, and retreat to his office.

By the eighth day of practices that consisted of just warm-up drills, Kendall was starting to lose his positive edge. 

"I'm really sick of warm-up drills," Carlos declared, tapping his stick against the ice for emphasis. "Can't we have a real practice?"

Kendall held up his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I can't do that. I'm the center, not the coach."

"Yeah, well, right now, anything is better than this." James shook his head and watched as everyone skated listlessly around the rink. Some of the forwards were facing off in the various circles. The defencemen were doing a passing/rushing drill, and the rest of the forwards and some defencemen were taking shots at Will as he tried to block as many of them as he could. He was holding his own, surprisingly, given that he was fielding five shots at a time.

Logan jerked his chin at where Will was holding down the crease. "He's a better goalie than I am."

"Don't say that, you're an ama--" Kendall was cut off by Logan raising his glove and shaking his head.

"Seriously, dude, he's one of the best I've seen, and he isn't even from Edina. I can't compete with that." Logan shrugged. "Look, I mostly did hockey because you guys really loved it, and because it looked good on my college applications. It's not my dream, and it's okay if he gets more ice time than I do." 

Carlos's eyes suddenly grew large and shiny. "You mean, you only did hockey to hang around us?" He rushed at Logan, knocking him to the ground, and hugged him. "Dude! Best best friend ever."

"Get off me!" Logan hollered.

James and Kendall ignored the two of them. James raised an eyebrow and tilted his head at the group at the other end of the rink practicing in vain. "You really think they'll continue to show up when this is all they have to look forward to?"

Kendall shrugged. "What am I supposed to do, huh?"

"You're _supposed_ to play team captain." James raised a challenging eyebrow at Kendall and skated backwards away from him. Carlos and Logan stood up, sensing something important was happening. 

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means," James said, voice condescendingly patient. "If you don't step up, maybe I will." 

"Oooooooh," Logan and Carlos chimed.

"I think he's serious," Logan stage-whispered.

"Me too," Carlos replied, munching excitedly on a corn dog. 

Logan did a double-take. "Where did you get that?"

Carlos grinned. "I always keep a few on me. Want one?" He offered one at Logan, who shrugged and accepted it.

Kendall looked riled, his expression focused. "That's not who you are," he finally replied, clearly grinding the words out from clenched teeth. 

"What? You're saying I couldn't be the star?" James tossed his head imperiously. "Who was it that got you on the team in the first place, again?"

"Ouch," Logan and Carlos chorused, stuffing large handfuls of popcorn into their mouths.

"That's it!" Kendall cried, slapping his hockey stick against the ice angrily. "You, me, sudden death. Right now." 

James grinned. "First to five?"

"Sure, whatever. Hurry up and grab a puck."

The rest of the team leaped into the players bench areas while Kendall and James faced off at center ice. 

"You're going to regret this." Kendall smirked, fingers flexing around his stick. 

"Don't cry too much when you lose, okay? It's embarrassing."

"That was _one time_ and we swore we'd never talk about it!" Kendall hissed.

"Face off!" John's voice, deep and resonant, echoed in the arena and reverberated off the ice itself. Kendall swore later he could feel it vibrate into his bones. 

Kendall and James widened their stance and bent low. Their grips shifted towards throttling their sticks, left hands gripping about a quarter of the length down the shaft and right hands wrapped tightly about a foot off the ice. 

They clapped their sticks together three times -- only because there was no ref to drop -- and James managed to win the the puck by curling in, tying up Kendall, and kicking the puck out between Kendall's feet. Kendall swore, pivoted, and skated after James, shoving him towards the boards. James stumbled, caught himself, and rushed at Kendall, slapping the puck away and forcing both of them to sprint back to the neutral zone. 

After fighting over the puck, James managed to wrench it away from Kendall and, in a dead sprint, scored a goal. He burned off the momentum gliding back to center ice, smirking so wide that Kendall was ready to punch him in the face. They faced off again, this time Kendall taking the upper hand, going after the puck with a ruthless fervor that Carlos and Logan had only seen once or twice beforehand. 

"WHAT THE HELL IS GO--" Gustavo looked somewhere between angry and confused. Behind him, Kelly pranced to keep up, her sensible heels eminently impractical on the seemingly-endless line of concrete arena stairs.

"Shh!" Seamus hushed, eyes focused on the rink. "They're playing a one-on-one set. First to five wins." 

"And they're tied now," Bam-Bam said, popping her gum, as Kendall skated backwards from a livid James.

Gustavo pushed past Robbie and Koto to stand at the boards and watch.

As the game progressed, the play got rougher. Kendall shoved James into the boards, sending him spinning. James leaped over Kendall's stick to make a snap shot. Kendall skated backwards trying to steal the puck back when James suddenly turned, skidded to a halt and looped around a scrambling Kendall. In turn, James found himself sprinting across the ice more times than he liked as Kendall ricocheted the puck off the boards to gain space and time. 

Eventually, it came down to the last face-off. Kendall and James were both sweaty -- Kendall had had to wipe his face twice already -- and breathing hard. 

"Last puck," Kendall taunted. 

"You scared?" James flashed a bright grin at Kendall. 

Kendall beamed back. "Not even a little bit. Get ready to lose, pretty-boy." 

"Face-off!" Robbie shouted. 

The _thwack_ of the sticks striking the ice was almost deafening, as was the sound of the puck smacking into the boards. The players benches were a raucous roar of mingled voices cheering on one or the other of them, with Carlos and Logan trading amused looks. 

"What's going on here?" a curious, feminine voice cut into the roar. 

Logan whirled around. A young woman in a pink sweater, jeans, and Chuck Taylors stood before him, her wavy brown hair pinned back out of her face. "I, uh, they, um," he sputtered. 

"Those two, Kendall and James, are in sudden death," Carlos explained distractedly. "I'm Carlos, he's Logan, now ssssssh!" 

She grinned. "Camille, and shutting up now." She physically turned Logan around, then levered herself up on her toes using his shoulders. Logan felt his face grow uncomfortably warm. 

On the ice, Kendall had James up against the boards, which half the defensive line was shouting about. The forwards were all yelling something else. Above the roar of the crowd, the distinct sound of a stick cracking and breaking was audible. A sudden hush fell over the arena as James and Kendall backed away from each other, puck forgotten, surveying their equipment.

James's stick looked beat but was clearly still serviceable. By contrast, Kendall's was broken, the splintery end brandished in his hand like a stake. 

"Oh no," he moaned, his expression turning horrified at the sight of his mangled hockey stick. He bent down and grabbed the other half, trying to piece the two together. 

An equally heartbroken groan emanated from the players benches, where the team was just as upset as Kendall. "I can't believe it," Sarge muttered. "A broken stick. What're the odds..."

James looked back and forth between him and Kendall, and then reached his hand out. "Draw?" He tilted his head to the side and grinned.

Kendall looked at the two halves of his stick in his hands, then at James's proffered hand. He dropped the broken remnants of his stick and shook James's hand, grinning sheepishly. "Draw," he agreed. He picked up his halves and they skated back to the boards. "Sorry about losing my cool, man."

"Nah, don't sweat it." James's grin turned into a smirk. "I did it on purpose."

Kendall skidded to a stop. "On purpose?! Why would you do that?"

James tilted his head at the assembled team, all of them discussing the impromptu one-on-one match, gesturing excitedly and going over the game play-by-play. "Team building exercise," he replied dryly. 

Gustavo cleared his throat noisily. "James! You were amazing!" Kelly elbowed him in the side roughly, then tapped her foot impatiently, raising an eyebrow. "And, uh, Kendall, you were alright too."

Kendall rolled his eyes. "Such high praise," he muttered caustically, climbing over the boards. "I'm hitting the showers," he announced loudly, tossing his stick in a trashcan and pulling off his helmet. Most of the rest of the team followed, James lingering to watch Gustavo for a moment before wandering off as well. 

Kelly sighed. "Are you going to keep ignoring them? Your first game is in a week!" 

Gustavo shrugged. "What do I care? I just have to be in this facility for five hours every day and I'm done." He held up his cell phone. "This place doesn't even have wi-fi! Minnesota is completely barbaric."

"FOCUS!" She grabbed him the sides of his half-unzipped hoodie. "You know the more you ignore them, the more they're going to do stupid crazy stuff like today, right? If you don't start taking your responsibilities seriously, they're going to get out of control."

"Kelly, I am a _RECORD PRODUCER_. It's my _job_ to handle difficult personalities. I've worked with _BOY BANDS_ and _GIRL GROUPS_. There is NO ONE I can't handle. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get a massage from the spa." He brushed her hands off of his hoodie and walked off.

"Wait, there's a spa?" She called, striding after him.

&&&

"You broke your stick?" Calling Jennifer Knight's expression "dismayed" would have been an understatement. "You weren't using it to break into a vending machine again, were you?"

"That was _one_ time, and I was eleven!" Kendall made a what-the-heck gesture, then crossed his arms across his chest. "And why is that your first question?" 

"Nevermind. Sweetie, I'm not sure we can afford a new stick for you right now." She bit her lip. 

"Just charge it to the team," Katie piped up, pressing buttons frantically on her Game Device. 

"Come again?" they asked in unison.

"It's in the contract. For charity teams, the coach has to replace any equipment damaged in normal gameplay or during practice. The contract is also why you all got new jerseys and helmets." The Game Device beeped triumphantly, Katie grinned and then snapped it shut. "So just go to the equipment store, get a new stick, and tell them to bill it to the Raiders." 

Kendall beamed. "Baby sister, have I mentioned lately that you're amazing?"

"Not lately, but it's always nice to hear." She grinned as he pulled her into a big hug, squealing when he lifted her off the ground and then dumped her back on the couch unceremoniously. 

"Gotta go, need a new stick!" He raced out of the apartment, grabbing his skateboard and gear along the way. 

The four of them, with directions gleaned from ManyMaps, made their way to the equipment store. It was located in the opposite direction of the practice rink, down the hill and over the trestle bridge that crossed a stream feeding into one of the lakes. 

On the bridge, they passed Malik, Aaron, Omar, and Lena, who had fishing rods and were dozing on the rocky bank. They rolled to a stop and leaned over the railing. "Hey guys!" the four of them chimed. 

The other four waved back. "Headed to the Duffle Bag?" Lena called.

"Duffle Bag?" They chorused, equally confused.

Omar rolled his eyes. "The equipment store," he clarified. He tilted his head in the direction they were head. "It's down that way, third left and second right." 

"Thanks guys!" They dropped their boards and kicked off. 

Carlos pushed to the front, tossing a grin over his shoulder. "RACE YOU!" He gave a mighty kick and took a big lead.

"Cheater!" James called, all four of them kicking frantically. They zoomed through the streets, dodging pedestrians and cyclists, the skateboard tires clattering against the cement. Their hooting and hollering gathered a lot of attention -- especially when a woman carrying a stack of flyers lost her footing and all the papers flew into the air. 

Logan grabbed one out of the air. "Oh hey, there's a puppet show at the library later this week."

"Stop thinking about Mr. Fluffles and skate faster!" James whooshed past Logan.

"Hey, don't make fun of Mr. Fluffles! Come back here!" 

Carlos, still leading, made the first turn and relaxed for a moment, certain of his lead and win. Then, out of nowhere, Kendall dropped out of a side street. Suddenly he and Carlos were neck-and-neck.

"Don't you ever get tired of always needing to win?" Carlos shouted, kicking as hard as he could.

"Do you ever get tired of corndogs?" Kendall shot back, grinning. 

"Fair enough!" Carlos performed a kick flip to avoid hitting a cat chilling on the sidewalk, while Kendall skated around it. As they rounded the last turn, Kendall grabbed the lamp post, putting him and Carlos dead even in the finishing sprint. Both of them skidded to a stop in front of the store, breathing hard and waiting for Logan and James, who appeared after a breath.

"Man, I just can't win today," Kendall muttered.

&&&

Inside, the store was homey and appropriately cluttered, filled with winter athletic gear. Skates -- figure, speed, and hockey -- lined one wall, blades and boots hung up on the wood paneling. The second floor had clothing, ski equipment, snowboards, and the gear for those sports plus cross-country, snowshoeing, and even ice fishing. Downstairs was mostly figure skating stuff in the front, with hockey and speed skating things towards the back. In the far corner, tucked away behind a half-wall, was a sharpener.

"Whoa," Carlos sighed softly. "It's like hockey heaven."

"Yeah, dude," came a new voice. "It's, like, snowvana here, heh." They all made their way around a rack of blade-protectors to see a guy, roughly their age, chilling behind the cash register. He held a guitar cradled to his body, one foot kicked up on the counter, and peered at them from behind his shades. "Wassup?" He paused and then began to strum. "Wassup? Wassup? Wassup!" He grinned at them, muting the strings. "Yeah."

"Nice one," they chorused. 

"So, you guys here for some equipment?"

"Yeah, my stick broke." Kendall looked embarrassed. 

"No worries, brah." He pointed at the rack. "Just pick the one you like and I'll cut it down if we need to." 

Kendall moved like a man possessed until he was immediately before the rack. "It's so beautiful," he breathed, hand reaching out to caress the blades. 

"You gonna get another wood stick?" Logan perused the rack next to Kendall. 

"Wood? Classic," Guitar Dude offered, resuming strumming his guitar.

Kendall shook his head. "I think I'm gonna get that graphite stick I always wanted."

Carlos whistled. "Damn," he breathed.

Kendall pulled a senior graphite stick out of the rack, then tested its flex. It was rated at 98, but it was just a touch too long for him. "I think we need that handsaw," he called, eyes crossed from sizing up the stick.

Guitar Dude took the stick. "Looks like the first hash mark is the right length." He looked up. "You okay with a flex of 103?" 

Kendall grinned. "Perfect." 

"Excellent. Do you need tape or anything?"

"Nah, the guys got me covered."

"Right on. And what team are you guys on?"

Kendall beamed. "The Raiders. Our coach is Gustavo Rocque."

&&&

Back at the apartment, Kendall was taping up his stick when his mom wandered into the living room. On the opposite corner of the couch was Katie, curled up and playing a videogame. "Where are the guys?"

Kendall shrugged, continuing to make a knot at the top of his stick. "They said something about smoothies and Jennifers." 

"They're probably getting the smoothies thrown in their faces by the Jennifers," Katie offered, her videogame beeping rhythmically.

As if on cue, the three guys walked in, covered in pink and blue. "Don't ask," they grumbled in unison, then trudged off to their rooms in order to get changed. 

Mrs. Knight clasped her hands together and pivoted on her heel. "How was practice today, honey?"

"The same," Kendall replied flatly, rolling his eyes. "I can't believe he doesn't even want to try to coach. For such a control freak, he's being completely hands-off. I don't get it." 

"Honey, sometimes people get in over their heads and then they don't know how to handle it." She sat down next to him and squeezed his shoulder. "It'll be okay, Kendall." 

He gently set the stick aside and gave his mom a hug. "Thanks, Mom," he said.

"Or it'll blow up in your face," Katie offered.

Kendall let go of his mom and picked up his squealing, squirming little sister. "Aaaaah, Kendall! Put me down! Mom!"

"You asked for this one, sweetie." Mrs. Knight dusted off her hands and wandered off.

"Mom!" 

"I'd be more worried about me, baby sister. After all, I am...The Tickle Monster!" He dumped her on the sofa and began to tickle her.

She squealed. "Not the tickle monster, n-ahahaha! Kendall! Ahahahaha!" 

Later, after Katie had gotten her tickle-revenge, they were laid out on the rug, staring at their ceiling. "I'm worried," he said quietly.

"Why?" Her large brown eyes glanced at him before focusing on the ceiling once more.

"I'm worried I'm not good enough."

Katie sat up at that. "Shut up. You're my brother, and you're one of the best hockey players in the state." She paused. "Plus, I put a hundred bucks on your team winning the finals, so you better not let me down." 

He grinned. "That a girl." He grabbed her and hugged her, ruffling her hair affectionately. 

The guys returned then, hair still damp from their showers. "Oh no, you two are being cute and family bonding, aren't you?" Logan made a face. 

Kendall threw a pillow at Logan, but hit Carlos instead.

"Uh oh," Katie said, scrambling out of the way and grabbing her Game Device as she rushed off.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" Carlos cried, suddenly brandishing a full pillow. Kendall covered his head and anticipated the inevitable.

&&&

The team assembled for their tenth practice, less than a week before their first game, with everyone geared up but clearly no one's heart in it.

Gustavo cleared his throat. "Good, you're all here. Before I go, WHO ORDERED THE HOCKEY STICK AND WHY DID IT COST MORE THAN MY CAT?" 

Kendall raised his gloved hand, expression defiant. "I did. My stick broke in the one-on-one game with James the other day." 

"THEN WHY DID YOU CHARGE IT TO ME?"

Kelly cleared her throat. "According to the contract, he's supposed to. It's part of the program."

"Oh." Gustavo awkwardly cleared his throat while a few of the teens snickered quietly. "Fine! But no one else buy anything without telling me!" He harrumphed and adjusted his clothes. "If you need me, don't." He moved to stalk off, Kelly glancing at the team with a helpless look.

"That's it?" Kendall skated forward, Carlos and James flanking him, with Logan following up. "Are you _ever_ going to coach us?"

"Why would I do that? You all are semi-pro anyway. Figure it out yourselves. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a hot stone massage waiting for me." He shot Kendall a haughty look and stalked off.

Kendall sighed and turned around. "All right, I guess we can practice ourselves. Forwards, let's run a passing dri--"

"Let me stop you right there." Damian skated forward, a handful of the other forwards behind him. "Look, man, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but if our own coach doesn't care, then why the hell should I." He shrugged. "See you at the game, man." He skated off the ice, Sam, David, and Timi close behind him. 

"Okay, well the rest of us can still--"

Lena and Bam-Bam skated past Kendall, stepping out of the rink as well. The other defencemen followed them, until the ice was just the four of them and Koto, Seamus, Sarge, and Robbie. 

Sarge tapped his stick on the ice. "C'mon, goalie, let's get you warmed up."

Logan shrugged and skated to his crease. "Bring it on!" he taunted. 

After a while, the forwards did a passing drill, something halfway between a game of King of the Hill and Horse. They cooled down by doing laps around the rink. 

Stepping off the ice, Kendall turned around. "Thanks for not walking out, you guys." 

Sarge shrugged, but it was Robbie who spoke. "Honestly," came the soft voice, "I just didn't have any other plans." Robbie grinned mischievously, causing the rest of them to burst into laughter.

&&&

That afternoon, there was a sudden commotion in the Cedar Woods lobby. The guys, who had their handheld Game Devices linked up to play Pocket-size Terrors (or, PoSiTe, as the games were better known) raised their heads to see a beautiful girl stride into the Cedar Woods, pulling a suitcase behind her.

For Kendall, it was as if the world slowed down, her blonde hair billowing out around her face, her smile wide and focused on him, her gait measured yet sensual. He felt himself grow slack-jawed and knew he was staring.

She rang the bell on the counter. Mr. Bitters swiveled in his seat. "Yes?"

"I'm here to check into room 5C. Taylor family. I'm Jo." 

The four of them leaned over closer, the better to hear.

"Well, Miss Taylor, here's a set of keys for you and your dad. Enjoy your stay." Bitters even managed something approaching a smile.

She beamed, took the keys, and headed back towards the elevator.

The four of them circled up. "Dibs!" they cried in unison.

Just then, the Jennifers walked by. Carlos made a pathetic sighing sound. "Actually, you guys go ahead. I'm going to try for..." He pulled on his helmet and tapped it twice. "The Jennifers!" He raced off after them.

James began to comb his hair. "Well, with my good looks and this body, she won't be able to resist me. Plus, I'll just _woo her with my voi-oooh-ice---hurk!_ " His eyes widened and he rasped out, "Oh no what just happened?"

As if on cue, Kelly strode in. "James, did your voice just give out?"

The three of them nodded.

She sighed. "I was worried this would happen. You know that Barracuda man spray you use? It just got recalled. Apparently 2% of all users experience spontaneous laryngitis." She considered him for a moment. "Looks like we're taking you to Dr. Medalist."

James made a choking noise.

"He doesn't like doctors," Kendall and Logan translated.

"Tough," Kelly said, and dragged James out of the lobby.

Logan turned to Kendall, eyebrow raised. "Looks like it's just you and m--"

"Ah, there you are!" The brunette from several days ago appeared. Camille sauntered straight up to Logan and grabbed him, hauling him bodily out of the chair. "You're just the guy I've been looking for."

"I am?" He squeaked. He cleared his throat and repeated, in a much deeper register, "I mean, I am?" 

"Yes, of course! And you _must_ come to my apartment straight away!" 

"Right, yes, apartment, uh, coming!" And Logan raced off. 

Kendall, suddenly alone, shrugged.

Across town, James was making frantic hissing noises and attempting to escape from the limo he and Kelly were riding in.

She dragged him into the waiting room. "Would you calm down? He's just a doctor. He's not evil!" 

Suddenly, a figure in scrubs and a surgeon's mask entered the waiting room, revving a bone saw.

Kelly shrieked, James simply froze in silent panic.

The figure stopped revving the bonesaw. He pulled off the facemask, revealing a scruffy-looking middle-aged man with blond hair and Ray Bans. "What the, you aren't Miyako with incurable hiccups." 

Kelly recovered. "No, he's James Diamond, forward for the Raiders. He got spontaneous laryngitis. I need him back at peak performance, pronto!" She poked the doctor in the chest to emphasize the last part. 

Dr. Medalist took a step back and rubbed his chest. "Ow, did you have to poke so hard?"

Kelly simply shot him a raised-eyebrow look.

"Right," he said, tossing aside the bonesaw. "Let's take a look."

In the Cedar Woods Park, Carlos trailed after the figure skating Jennifers like a lost puppy.

"Go out with me?"

The three of them didn't even look up from their magazines. "No," they chorused.

"Pleaaaaase?"

"No." 

He looked forlorn. "Pretty please with sugar on top?"

Brunette and Blonde Jennifer chimed in with a toneless, "No," but curly-haired Jennifer hesitated.

"Okay," she said. 

"What?" The other two glared at her.

"Really?" Carlos's face lit up. 

Curly-haired Jennifer shrugged. "Sure, why not?" She smiled at him. "Pick me up at seven?"

Carlos nodded vigorously.

Blonde Jennifer scoffed. "C'mon, we have practice." She pulled on curly-haired Jennifer's elbow and the three of them walked off, a stray breeze fluffing their hair _just so_.

Carlos sighed dreamily for a moment, watching them walk away until they turned a corner, and then suddenly sat up. "Wait, where am I supposed to take her?!"

Back at the Cedar Woods, Camille dragged Logan into her place, Apartment 4J, and beamed at him.

Logan shifted from foot to foot nervously. "So, uh, you said you needed my help with something?"

She nodded vigorously. "Yes, I do! I, uh, I need your help changing a lightbulb."

Logan shot her a look. "A lightbulb."

"Right! Because I'm....afraid of heights."

At this point, Logan smirked and crossed his arms across his chest. "Right."

She slumped her shoulders a bit. "You're not buying it, are you?"

"Nope." He smiled, dimple in his cheek appearing. "You wanna try again?"

She ran a hand through her hair. "Look, I really like you, and I was hoping you'd like to run lines with me. We could spend time together, and I could learn my lines for the audition." She smiled nervously at him, glancing at him from below her long, dark lashes. 

Logan felt his neck grow warm and he swallowed. "I'd...I'd like that." He cleared his throat and shifted his weight. "So, what play is it?"

Camille beamed. 

One floor up, Kendall knocked on the door of 5C, cradling a potted plant in the crook of his elbow.

The door opened to reveal Jo, the pretty blonde girl from the lobby.

"Welcome to the Cedar Woods," Kendall greeted, handing her the potted plant. "I'm Kendall. Me and my three buds live in 2J. My mom's an amazing cook. You should come over for dinner some time." 

She smiled and accepted the plant graciously. "Thank you, and that sounds great." She dropped her voice to a loud whisper, leaning forward. "My dad isn't very good at the whole cooking thing. He thinks sautees involve ice cream."

"I heard that!" a male voice called from deep in the apartment.

Jo grinned at Kendall and straightened up. "But seriously, thanks." 

Kendall stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, no, don't worry about it." He flashed her a grin. "Hey, you wanna maybe grab pizza on the deck later? I'd like the company."

"Sure, I'll come down after I call my boyfriend back home."

Kendall felt himself deflate a bit. "Cool. I'll see you later, then." He gave a short wave and walked down the hall. Once in the stairwell, he sighed. "Boyfriend," he muttered, and clambered down the stairs, headed to their apartment.

At that moment, Carlos burst in and ran into the living room. He vaulted the couch and fell to his knees in front of a nonplussed Katie, who continued to buttonmash her videogame.

"Katie! I need your help!"

"Uh huh," she replied.

Carlos continued, apathetic to her need to concentrate on slaying all those orcs. "I got one of the Jennifers to go out with me, but I don't know where to take her tonight.

"Dinner and a movie," she replied, her Game Device suddenly beeping fiercely as her fingers tapped rapidly. 

"Isn't that kind of cliche?"

"Totally classic. Girls love that stuff." Her brow furrowed as she attempted to get past a mounted orc cavalry unit. 

Carlos paused to consider. "But, where should I take her?"

Katie half-shrugged, tapping vigorously to revive her hero. "I dunno, ask Bitters. NO NO DON'T DIE! I hear Cubierto, the burrito place down the street, is pretty popular." 

"Do they have corndogs?"

"No."

Kendall walked into the apartment, kicking the door shut behind him. "New girl's taken," he announced forlornly. "Uh, why are you kneeling beside my sister?"

Carlos rushed to his feet. "No reason." He paused. "Okay, I needed advice about girls."

"Dude, you coulda asked me." Kendall made a "come on, man" face.

Carlos raised his eyebrow. "Are you female?"

"What? No."

"I rest my case." Carlos tapped his helmet and headed for his bedroom.

Kendall sputtered. "I don't even know what your case _is!_ " He shook his head and fell onto the sofa next to Katie.

Katie let out a frustrated half-scream and snapped her Game Device shut. 

"Orcs got you down?"

"They keep respawning and sniping!" She crossed her arms across her chest and blew out a frustrated breath that ruffled her bangs. "Ridiculous." 

He shot her a half-smile. "Sometimes you have to give up for a while in order to win later on." 

She tossed her Game Device onto the coffee table and crawled under his arm, snuggling against her brother. "Life sucks," she said flatly.

Kendall laughed. "You said it, baby sister." 

At the doctor's office, James had devolved into full-body shaking as Dr. Medalist approached with a giant needle prepped in hand. 

Kelly was next to him. "You're crushing my hand," she hissed, pulling her much-abused fingers out of James's iron grip, but only after great effort. She raised an eyebrow at the doctor. "Do you really have to use that giant needle? He's clearly terrified."

"I'm not terrified," James stage-whispered. "I'm...just nervous." 

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She shot Dr. Medalist a look. "I still don't think that large of a needle is necessary."

Dr. Medalist shrugged and tossed the syringe aside carelessly. "Well, he could take this syrup orally instead." He held up a bright purple bottle of what looked like cough syrup. "Take this once an hour every hour for the next day and you'll be good as new."

James immediately stopped shaking and leaped to his feet. "I'll take it, doc!" He grabbed the bottle and ran out of the examination room.

Dr. Medalist paused. "How long do you think until he realizes he's not wearing pants?"

Kelly licked her lips. "In three, two, one--"

A series of feminine shrieks (and one male) preceded James racing back into the exam room and slamming the door shut behind him.

In Camille's apartment, Logan paused in his reading to ask Camille a question.

"So, this is a gender-reversed version of _Romeo and Juliet_?"

She nodded. "Yes, so all the male parts are going to be women, and all the female parts will be men." 

"So, are men going to be in dresses?"

"What? No!" She laughed. "Look, I'm auditioning for Tybalt. I'll be in a dress, and I'll get to fight Mercutio, also a girl in a dress, with swords." 

"Ohh." He licked his lips. "So why don't you want to be Romeo?"

"Well," she said, setting the script down. "I've never been good at kissing scenes."

"That doesn't make any sense," he said, setting his own script aside and shifting closer to Camille. "Beautiful girl like you? Who _wouldn't_ want to kiss you?" 

She blushed and tilted her head slightly. "Guess it isn't something I see in my cards. Besides, Tybalt has more fun."

"Tybalt dies in Act III," Logan pointed out, voice lowering several notes. They weren't very far apart at this point, mere inches between their faces. 

"Tybalt doesn't marry a 13-year-old girl he met three days ago," she retorted, voice steady but pulse racing. 

"You just wanna play with swords, admit it," he teased, dimple flashing as he grinned. 

"So what if I do?" she murmured, and closed the distance between them.

&&&

Later that night, Carlos was fretting in front of the mirror. "Kendall, c'mon, should I wear the blue shirt or the green one?"

"Green," James rasped, sipping from his purple plastic bottle of medicine. 

"James says green," Kendall dutifully relayed, checking his watch and straightening his shirt. "Did you pick a movie to take her to?"

Carlos sighed. "I wanted to see _Headsmashers 6: Pumpkin Head_ , but I guess I'll have to take her to _All the Pretty Espadrilles_." He made a face.

Kendall nodded in sympathy. "Girl movie?"

"The girliest."

Kendall clapped Carlos on the shoulder. "Well, good luck man. I've got an undate with a girl who's pretty clearly taken." He shrugged. "At least she seems cool."

"Have fun, man," James rasped.

Carlos's brow furrowed. "Has anyone seen Logan?"

The front door opened then, and a clearly blissed-out Logan practically floated in. His face was covered in lipstick prints and his expression was dreamy and far-off. He passed Mrs. Knight on his way to his room. 

She paused at the base of the stairs and then shook her head. "I don't even want to know." She grabbed her purse and beamed. "Since everyone has dinner plans, I'm taking Katie to dinner. It'll be a girl's night!" 

Katie trudged down the stairs and shot her mom a look. "I didn't agree to this."

"You don't get a choice, honey," her mother responded cheerily. The two of them left, Kendall following on their heels. 

Carlos continued to primp in front of the mirror until his cell phone alarm went off. With one final glance in the mirror, he smoothed out some nonexistent wrinkles and nodded at his reflection with determination.

"You can do it, man," James offered, voice still gone. 

Carlos shot him a thumbs up gesture and strode out of the apartment. 

A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door. With a silent groan, James rose to answer the knock.

On the other side was a delivery guy, carrying a large bag of Chinese takeout and the boardgame Oligopoly. 

He handed James a note. "Delivery for James Diamond," he said flatly. James sniffed and knew the takeout contained pepper beef, his favorite, and opened the note.

_Enjoy dinner on me. Get better soon! --K.W._

On the deck, Kendall sat, laid out in a deck chair with his feet propped up, waiting for both Jo and for the pizza he'd ordered. The heart shaped pizza was probably too much but it was too late now. 

He didn't have to wait long -- he heard her light gait before she appeared. "Hey," she greeted, giving him a small wave.

"Hey yourself," he returned, sitting up. "How was the call with your boyfriend."

"Hmm?" She slid into the chair beside his, the small table between them. "Oh, uh, it was fine. What'd you end up doing all afternoon?"

"Well, one of my friends, Carlos, got a date tonight, so I was helping coach him through it."

"Sounds..." She paused.

"Yeah it was completely unexciting," he finished for her. "It's okay." He shot her a half grin.

Suddenly a guy on a motorcycle scooter drove up to them. "SpeedyDot -- you ordered a pizza?" He set the box on the table between them, had Kendall sign his receipt, and sped off.

Jo looked a little stunned. "Was that...?"

"Pizza delivery guy on a scooter? Yeah, don't think too hard about it." He flipped open the lid of the cardboard box. "Dig in." He handed her a paper plate and she grinned.

At Cubierto, Carlos and Jennifer stood in line trying to work out their orders.

Nervous, Carlos simply started talking. "I can never decide what to get here, everything looks so tasty." 

Jennifer gazed neutrally at the menu board. "I usually just get a burrito bowl. The tortilla is like a thousand calories on its own."

Carlos gaped. "Really? But my mom makes tortillas at home all the time. It's just flour, salt, and water."

"And lard," she added. "Real tortillas are made with a bit of lard, and places like this use a ton of shortening to keep the tortillas soft." She scrunched up her face in disgust. "Way too many calories."

Carlos, however, was turning starry-eyed. "You know how to make tortillas?"

She grinned. "Of course I do. My mom's Dominican." 

Carlos _might_ have sighed dreamily at that.

At Basil Planter, a local Italian place, Mrs. Knight and Katie sat at a small table. Mrs. Knight beamed and took in the ambiance. "What a nice little restaurant, don't you think?"

"Uh-huh," Katie replied sullenly, gazing impassively at her menu. 

She shot her daughter a flat look. "Come on, can't you at least pretend to enjoy yourself?"

"Mom, I was _thisclose_ to killing the orc king." 

"He'll wait," was the flat reply. Mrs. Knight laid down her menu. "Honey, I just want to spend some time with you. Is that so bad?"

Katie sighed. "No, it's not." 

Mrs. Knight opened her mouth to say something when her jaw went slack and her eyes widened. Startled, Katie whipped around in her seat to see what had caused her mother's reaction.

In the restaurant entrance was a tall, broad-shouldered man with long, flowing hair. He wore a tailored suit and an easy smile that seemed to sparkle.

Katie raised an eyebrow. "Is...that....?"

Her mother sighed. "Fabio..." 

Back at the Cedar Woods, the food was long gone and board game left abandoned on the counter. James and Logan were playing a team mission in _Duty Calls 4: Purple Hearts_ , James taking the occasional swig from his purple bottle. 

"So, how you feeling, man?"

James shrugged and shot Logan a wide, purple-stained grin with a thumbs-up.

Logan opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, and flashed back a thumbs-up of his own. They continued to blow up Nazis. 

On the Cedar Woods deck, Kendall and Jo had spent the better part of the past hour trying to find things they had in common.

"Hockey?" Kendall tried, fingers and toes crossed. Between them, the pizza box remained, lid open and only a couple of slices remaining. 

Jo shook her head. "I actually can't stand hockey." She ran her fingers through her ponytail nervously. "Boy bands?"

"Ugh, no never." 

They awkwardly twiddled their thumbs and looked around the deck.

"It's a good thing you've got a boyfriend," he said, appropos of nothing. He immediately winced and wanted to bang his head against the wall.

"What?" She looked confused for a moment before recovering. "Oh, right. Yeah, I mean. We're clearly so wrong for each other, right?"

"Right." 

They shared another awkward moment. 

Carlos and Jennifer walked into the movie theater and up to the ticket counter. Carlos scanned the showtimes. "It looks like the next showing of _All the Pretty Espadrilles_ is in twenty minutes." 

She raised an eyebrow. "You want to see _that?_ "

Carlos sputtered incoherently, stammering out some noises that sounded like parts of words. 

She shook her head. "Can we see _Headsmashers 6: Pumpkin Head_ instead? I heard that Espadrille movie was terrible anyway."

Carlos stared at her, somewhere between shock and madly in love.

She waved a hand in front of his face. "You okay?"

He snapped out of it. "You're completely amazing, you know that?"

"You should see me do a triple salchow," she replied wryly. He bought their tickets and they skipped the snack counter to head into the theater itself. 

Mrs. Knight stared dreamily at Fabio through dinner. Katie ignored her and, instead, gorged herself on both their meals and desserts. Plus, Katie got all the breadsticks, which was totally the top perk. 

At some point, Katie's mom headed to the restroom before they left the restaurant. Katie checked her phone and saw Kendall had texted her seven times through dinner, each message bemoaning his fate even more.

"Excuse me," came a deep, accented voice. Katie looked up and gaped. Fabio stood beside her. 

"Uh, hi," she said, snapping her phone shut. 

"I noticed your mom watching me through dinner." He gestured with his chin towards her mother's vacant chair. "Is she a fan?"

Katie nodded vigorously. "She has all your books," she offered, straightening up and sensing a business opportunity. "You know, if you're seeking represe--"

Fabio ignored her. "Could you give her this? I think she'd like it." He smiled -- a little glint in an eye appearing -- and swept out of the restaurant.

Just then her mother returned. "What's that you got there?"

Katie blinked twice and then handed the book to her mother. "It's from Fabio."

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh, sure it is." 

"No, really!" She handed it over. "He said it was for you."

Her mother shot her a look, then turned over the book in Katie's hands, and gasped. It was an advance copy of his next romance novel, signed with his name.

She sputtered, then hugged the book to her chest and sighed dreamily.

Katie sighed, too, only hers was resigned to remaining in the restaurant a bit longer.

Back at their apartment, Logan and James were well into their eighth wave of Nazis to kill. Logan looked over at James and hit pause before tossing the controller aside and throwing his hands in the air. "DUDE!"

James looked puzzled, then saw his hands, which were three times their normal size and covered in orange spots. He made a squeaking noise and ran to the bathroom, where more squeaking noises became apparent. James raced out and gestured silently at his face, expression thunderous.

Logan sputtered. "Uh, uh, uh, bottle! Gimme the bottle!" James practically threw the bottle at Logan, who caught it deftly (James was suitably impressed) and scanned the label. "It looks like you're having a reaction to the phenydiazalaranaphenomene."

James gazed back blankly.

"Purple stuff give you orange spots?"

James immediately looked ready to cry. 

"Uh, no, stop. We need to find Kendall!" Logan pumped his fist in the air. "He'll know what to do."

James gestured at his face, a faint guitar riff playing in the distance as he did so, then shot Logan a frustrated look.

"Right, orange spots." Logan scanned the apartment, then grabbed a dark hoodie. "Here, put this on!" 

James grimaced, but then pulled the hoodie on, combed his hair aside under the hood, and stuffed his hands into the kangaroo pocket.

Logan pulled open the door and the two of them rushed out of the apartment in search of Kendall.

Outside of Jennifer's apartment, Carlos shifted nervously from foot to foot. "I had a really great time tonight."

"Me too," she said, smiling shyly. 

"Our game is next week, you should come watch us play." 

"Oh yeah?" She said, sidling a little closer to him. They were a breath apart, at best. "And if I came? What would be in it for me?" Her voice dropped and turned husky. Carlos swallowed and leaned in, eyes drifting shut...

"Carlos! Oh thank god you're here."

Carlos and Jennifer snapped apart, moment ruined. She gave him a small wave and stepped inside of her apartment. He waved back, waited for the door to close, then whipped around, death glare firmly in place. "This had better be _really_ important, or I will kill both of you." 

Logan's eyes widened. "Oh, god, sorry man, I--" James elbowed him roughly in the side, sending Logan into a coughing fit. 

However, Carlos saw the orange spots on James's face and hands. "Spots!" he cried, pointing.

"Allergic....reaction..." Logan managed, between gasps of air.

Carlos pulled on his helmet and tapped it. "So what's the plan?"

"Find Kendall." Logan straightened, righting his clothes. "He'll have a plan."

They dashed down the hall and thundered down the stairs.

On the deck, Kendall and Jo continued to sit in increasingly awkward silence.

"I like your shoes," he offered.

"Thanks," she said. "Again."

"Oh," he said, then looked anywhere but at her.

Suddenly, Logan, Carlos, and a tall hooded figure stormed onto the deck. "Kendall, we need you!" they chimed. Well, Carlos and Logan chimed. James, the hooded figure, simply gestured emphatically at his face.

Comprehension dawned. Kendall turned to Jo. "I hate to do this, but--"

"Go!" she said, making a shooing gesture. "He's got orange spots!"

James glared at Logan, who simply shrugged. "It was the first thing I saw, sue me." In response, James shot him a sassy look.

Kendall, meanwhile, was taken by surprise. "You're really okay with this?"

"Kendall, you friend is orange. And I have to unpack still." She grinned. "Call me?"

He nodded, beaming. "Yeah, of course."

She waved and bounded off. Kendall watched her round the corner, a dreamy expression on his face until she disappeared. Then, pivoting, he surveyed his friends. "Sit rep!" 

"James has been taking medicine for his weirdo laryngitis, but it's sparked a different allergic reaction, and now he has orange polka dots all over," Logan dutifully recited.

"Right. Okay. We need to call Kelly and my mom. Cell phones!" Carlos, James, and Kendall whipped out their phones. "Carlos, call my mom. I'll call Kelly. Logan, find something to cover James up better."

Carlos dialed first, waiting for the ringer to pick up. They heard a tinkly ringtone behind them. The four of them turned to face the sound and saw Mrs. Knight appear through the gates, sighing dreamily at her advance copy. Her expression froze when she saw the four of them watching her expectantly.

"Why is James sporting orange polka dots."

"Oh this is _so_ going on Myfaceblog+," Katie said, snapping a cell phone picture and uploading it.

James made panicked gestures while Logan explained the situation again. 

"Okay," Mrs. Knight said, tucking her book into her purse and hefting the bag onto one shoulder. "First things first: someone call Kelly."

"On it," Kendall said, hitting call.

After a couple of rings, a tired female voice picked up, somehow still perky. "Kelly Wainwright, Rocque Records and Assistant Coach to the Raiders." 

"Kelly! James is orange-spotted," Kendall said, ignoring context. 

On the other end of the line, she groaned. "He had an allergic reaction to the syrup?"

"Yes!" Logan chimed, ear pressed against the other side of the phone. 

Kendall shooed him. "So what do we do?"

"Have your mom drive him to the hospital. I'll meet you there with Dr. Medalist." She hung up the phone. 

He turned to his mom. "She said--"

"Way ahead of you, big brother." Katie patted the bucket seat beside her in the middle row. James had already taken shotgun.

"Right." He locked his phone and got in, sliding the door shut behind him.

At the hospital, Kelly and Dr. Medalist met them as they walked in. The five of them waited in the reception area while Dr. Medalist and Kelly took James to an exam room. Last-minute, James pulled off the hoodie, balled it up, and threw it at Logan. "Hey!" came the cry as the exam room door shut.

Kelly gasped. "Oh my god, you're orange."

James shot her a flat look.

Dr. Medalist looked pensive. "Hmm."

"Hmm? What does that mean?" Kelly had a wild expression in her eyes. 

"I-It means he has to have that shot." 

James made a squeaking noise and hugged himself.

Kelly shot a beseeching look at the doctor. "Is there no other option?"

"I'm afraid not."

James started to shake when he felt a small hand squeeze his. Looking down, he saw Katie holding his hand. His expression turned quizzical.

"What, you don't want me here?" Her expression turned extremely sad, her large brown eyes growing larger, and her lower lip quibbling slightly. James stared, mesmerized by her mastery.

"And done," said Dr. Medalist.

"Wait, that's it?" James squawked. "Hey I can talk!"

Dr. Medalist looked smug. "I do good work." Then, he pumped a fist. "Stuck the dismount!" 

Kelly rolled her eyes. "At least you're not orange. Now, will you _please_ stop using your man-spray?"

He nodded vigorously. "I'll stick to Brooke Diamond for Men." He crossed his heart, then marveled at his un-spotted hands.

Katie tapped her phone. "Oh hey, that picture of you is on the front page of Perez Waldrof-Astoria."

James groaned and buried his face in his hands.

Kelly winced. "I'll take care of that." 

Later, back at the apartment, the four of them were splayed out in the living room trading notes about their day.

"And then we made out for a while," Logan finished, looking smug.

"Nice," they chorused, gently punching him on various parts of his torso. 

"Man, we had a crazy day, didn't we?" Kendall said, feeling himself starting to fade out.

"Yeah," the rest of them chimed, voices clearly tired.

"Practice tomorrow at nine," Logan murmured, yawning.

"Yeah," James snorted. "We'll see."

"Hey, stay positive, you guys." Kendall tried to bite back a yawn of his own. "Who knows what'll happen.

&&&

The next couple of practices, the team split almost immediately after Gustavo left. Though Kendall and the other three continued to work on fundamentals, the inaction was clearly frustrating.

The next practice, two days before their first game, Gustavo stalked out of the arena noisily, commanding Kelly to bring him an omelette and his rhinestone encrusted sneakers, for some reason. 

Kendall skated to the front of the group and blocked the exit off the ice. "Look," he said flatly. "I don't like this any more than you do. But, I love hockey more than this situation annoys me. And I know all of you do, too. Can we please just have one more practice?" His expression beseeched the team. His fingers flexed nervously on his hockey stick. 

Their teammates all looked at each other, nervous and unsure. Kendall pressed his advantage. "We can do passing drills, and work on our slap and snap shots. We can even try to get pucks past Logan and Will." He smiled winningly.

Half the team shrugged and moved out onto the ice, skating warmup laps. The other half watched Kendall warily. 

He lowered his voice and looked each of them in the eye. "Come on," he said. "If nothing else, respect the game." 

Lena's stony gaze softened and she nodded. With her went the resolve of the group, and they all skated out to warm up.

Kendall felt all the tension in his body release as he let out a long breath.

The other three stared at him in awe. "That was amazing," they said in unison. 

"Yeah, well," he said, shrugging. "Let's warm up."

After practice, they all trooped to the showers. Afterwards, Kendall and the guys were gathering their things when Sarge came up to them. 

"Hey, there's a field party tonight." He handed them a flyer with a crudely drawn map to the secret location. "Bring something to share," he added. "And don't let Bitters catch you or follow you. He hates field parties, tries to shut them down every time." He gave them a two-fingered wave and sauntered out of the locker room.

Carlos and James immediately made wooping noises and waving their hands in the air. "Party!" they cried.

"Shh!" Kendall made settle-down gestures with his hands. "Didn't you hear what he said? Field party. Be cool." He straightened, hefted his bag, and then grinned. "I'm gonna ask Jo to come with me."

Carlos and Logan shot him identical flat looks. "Dude, c'mon. She's taken. Don't be that guy."

"I know, I know." He clutched the strap of his bag and scuffed his shoe against the locker room's laminate flooring. "I just, I dunno. I like her."

The three of them shot him sympathetic looks. "We know, man." 

James combed his hair with his lucky comb, checking his reflection in the mirror. "I was thinking about asking one of the Jennifers," he said.

"Not curly-haired Jennifer!" Carlos declared, strapping on his helmet and tapping it twice in preparation.

"Calm down," he said. "I prefer blondes anyway." 

Logan's phone beeped. He snapped it open and beamed. "That's Camille. I gotta go." He bounded out of the locker room, practically leaving treadmarks in his haste. 

"He must really like her," Kendall said noncommittally.

"Yeah," the other two concurred. 

On the deck, Katie played with her Game Device while Jo, two deck chairs over and facing the other direction, flipped through a glossy magazine. Katie muttered dark curses under her breath at the Game Device every time her character died. 

Suddenly, Jo's cell went off. Out of courtesy, Katie turned down her game music. _All the better to hear you with,_ she thought, and hit pause.

"Oh, hey Mom," Jo started. Katie half-listened as they caught up on what had happened since the move. It was Jo laughing nervously several moments later that caught Katie's attention. "What? No, Mom, I don't have a boyfriend. I broke up with Blake months ago." She paused. "No, mom, it's fine. I'll just be single this summer." 

Katie's eyes widened considerably. With all the grace she could muster, she threw her legs over the side of the chair and scrambled back to their place. She burst into the apartment, shouting, “Kendall!”

Kendall, who was sitting quietly on the couch reading a hockey magazine, yelped and twisted around. “What, what is it, what?”

"She doesn’t have a boyfriend!”

“Wha--ohh!” He leaped to his feet and tossed the periodical aside. “How do you know this?”

“I heard her talking on the phone with her mom and she said she didn’t have a boyfriend.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “She’s lying to you, big brother.” 

“She must have her reasons,” he rationalized. 

“Whatever. If she doesn’t want to date you, she should just say so.” Katie raised an eyebrow. “You deserve better.”

In spite of himself, Kendall smiled and leaned down to give her a hug. “You’re the best, baby sister, you know that?”

“Yeah,” she said, hugging him back. “But it’s always nice to hear.” They pulled away and she tilted her head slightly. “So what are you going to do about this?”

He looked pensive for a moment. “I guess I’ll figure it out at the field party tonight.”

“There’s a field party tonight?” She brightened up.

“Shh!” He made a panicked gesture. “Don’t say it so loud.”

She laughed, and held out her hand. “Twenty bucks buys my silence.”

Grumbling, he dug into his pocket and forked over the cash. “You drive a hard bargain,” he muttered, shaking his hair out of his eyes.

“Nah,” she said. “You’re just easy.” She held out her hand again, this time for them to do their secret handshake. Then, she snapped the twenty and walked off humming something cheery.

He rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone. _You wanna go with me to the field party?_ he texted.

Jo’s response was immediate. _Sounds awesome, see you tonight. :)_

&&&

Later that night, the four of them headed to the party separately. Carlos and James flanked the Jennifers, arriving with bags of chips and large bottles of sodas. Carlos carefully rearranged his stuff so that he could take curly-haired Jennifer’s hand. She smiled and laced her fingers with his. Beside them, James kept attempting to start a conversation with blonde Jennifer, who simply rolled her eyes and ignored him. On his other side, brunette Jennifer kept opening her mouth to respond, only to be interrupted by other revelers.

Logan and Camille approached from a different side, carrying rope lights and holding hands while continuing to run lines from _Romeo and Juliet_ at one another. 

Kendall knocked on 5C and waited. In one arm he had a battery-powered MyPod stereo, in the other a bucket of ice. 

Jo opened the door and beamed, shutting it quietly behind her. She had a huge bag of EmEm candies and a sports cooler that made quiet sloshing sounds.

"You brought water and chocolate?"

She shrugged. "It's all I could grab! We're almost done unpacking, it's ridiculous." 

They made their way through the woods. At some point, Jo took hold of Kendall's hand and he didn't protest. They made their way through, following the trail of orange flags marking the way. As they got closer, the forest's darkness deepened, the lights of the city fading out, only to be replaced with a pretty massive firepit that enhanced the shadows at the edges of the clearing. Immediately around the fire were split logs serving as seating. Beyond that, someone had their truck backed up into the clearing and was playing the radio from the cab's speakers, doors flung wide open. Kendall headed over and handed him the MyPod dock, which they quickly hooked up and had someone's MyPhone plugged into in moments, a hip hop beat thrumming out over the clearing as people changed their dancing and their rhythm to match the new song.

On the far side, on a folding table that the truck must have brought, was all the beer, food, and other drinks and things everyone had carried out. Taped to one end was a giant garbage bag. 

They tossed their offerings onto the table, poured out punch (jungle juice, really, but punch was much easier to explain) and headed for the fire, where Carlos and Jennifer were nearby roasting marshmallows, his arm around her waist. 

Kendall cleared his throat and took a sip of the sweet, alcoholic concoction. "How's unpacking going?"

"Super stressful," she said, making a face and setting aside her cup. "We keep realizing we've forgotten stuff and then we have to make a run for the local Bullseye. Not to mention getting furniture! The closest place is 20 minutes away, it's ridiculous."

He laughed. "At least it's not wintertime. Everything would be a million times harder then."

"Yeah, but this sticky, humid summer isn't exactly inspiring me with confidence, either." She pressed the back of her palm to her forehead and mimed swooning. "I'm just a wilting flower!" her southern accent thickened to parody, and she dissolved into laughter before too long.

He laughed, then felt his pocket buzz. "Oh, one sec," he said, pulling out his phone. On the screen, it said he had a text message from Katie. When he opened it, it read, _911! BITTERS HEADED YOUR WAY!_

He called her back. "Bitters is coming?" he said, in lieu of a hello when she picked up.

"Yeah," she replied, voice hushed. Jo pressed her ear to the other side of the phone to listen in. "Bitters found one of the flyers laying around, but the map had been torn off. He knows there's a party and he's coming after you guys." She took a breath. "Get out of there, or distract him. Getting in trouble is not an option," she said matter-of-factly. 

"Got it," Kendall said, nodding. "Thanks, baby sister."

"You owe me twenty bucks," she replied flatly, then hung up.

Jo turned to look at him. "She drives a hard bargain," she commented.

"Yeah, tell me about it." He put his phone away, expression turning beseeching. "I hate to ask this, but--"

"Uh, yeah of course I'll help you distract Bitters." She stood, jogged over to the table, reached under the table and into a box, then jogged back, a small boom box in one hand. She handed him the stereo as well as a noisemaker. In her hands, she had her own horn and a large ratchet noisemaker. "Let's get him," she declared, eyes glowing. 

Across the clearing, Logan and Camille were dancing, bodies pressed close together and hands roaming all over one another. At some point, she turned to face him and their dancing turned into gyrating while making out. 

By the fire, Carlos was teaching Jennifer how to roast marshmallows for s'mores. "Now, keep the marshmallow at the edge of the fire or else it'll burn," he explained, rotating his marshmallow carefully as the flames licked at it. He turned to see her progress only to see her halfway through eating a perfectly toasted s'more. 

She swallowed, then held a hand in front of her mouth as she spoke. "The trick is to toast the s'more all at once," she said, voice thick with chocolate. "That way, the chocolate melts."

Carlos gaped. "I think I love you," he said, dropping the stick and reaching towards her. When he kissed her, she tasted like sweet marshmallows and bitter chocolate and Carlos was pretty sure he'd never have a s'more without thinking of her again, and then he wasn't thinking at all.

James was leaning against the pickup truck attempting to chat up the blonde Jennifer. "So then I hit the slap shot that won the game." He grinned at her and took a long drink from his red ARIA cup. 

Jennifer (and her brunette name-twin, beside her) rolled her eyes. "Are you finally done?"

"Yup!" He set the cup aside. "Wanna dance?"

She looked him up and down, then pursed her lips. "No."

Just then, a tall young man passed by, shirt clinging to his muscles. "Hello," he said, voice deep. He held out a hand to Jennifer, blonde version. "Would you like to dance with me?"

She made a squeaking noise. "Yes!" They made off to the dancing area, James looking particularly put out. Brunette Jennifer opened her mouth to say something when a lanky young woman with straight, black hair and an hourglass figure sauntered up to James. 

"Dance with me?" she asked, voice husky. James nodded and took her hand, the two of them quickly falling into a rhythm.

Brunette Jennifer sighed. 

In the woods, Kendall and Jo tracked Bitters using his pedometer app that broadcasted his location.

"It says he's right next to us," Jo whispered. 

Suddenly, there was a crashing noise, and Bitters appeared, dressed in a full-body suit with a vacuum and the look of the hunter. 

"You ready?" He murmured, glancing at her.

She nodded. He counted off to three on his fingers, and then they burst out of the brush, making noise and blaring the stereo.

"Woo!" 

"Party! Yeaaaaaah!"

Bitters pivoted, surprisingly spryly for a man his age and build. "Party!" he roared. "Get back here!" Kendall and Jo raced off, laughing, away from the clearing. 

The chase went on sporadically, Bitters having to stop every now and again to catch his breath. The equipment on his back also slowed him down considerably. However, at some point, Kendall and Jo lost track of him.

"I can't believe you lost him," she hissed, crouching beside him behind a fallen tree.

"I lost him?!" he hissed back, scanning the area around them. "You were the one who insisted we go left. I knew we should have stayed right."

"If we'd gone right, we'd have led him right to the party!"

"What? No! The party was straight ahead! Turning in _any_ direction would have been the right choice." 

"Ha! So you admit I'm right." She grinned smugly.

Kendall rolled his eyes. "I admit nothing." He paused. "I heard you don't have a boyfriend," he murmured.

She went still. "Where'd you hear that?" Her voice was slow and suspicious.

"Rumours," he stated flatly. "When were you going to tell me?"

She ran a hand through her hair. "It's complicated."

"No it's not. You're asked if you're single, you say yes." 

"I didn't think I'd want a boyfriend! I'm going back to North Carolina in a couple of months, and a summer fling just isn't my style." 

"But now?" He tried (and failed) to keep the note of hope out of his voice. 

"Now," she said slowly. "Now, I'm thinking I should change my mind." 

Suddenly, there was a great commotion. "Paaaaartyyyyyyyy!" came the enraged male voice.

Kendall and Jo traded looks.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Let's go!"

He flipped on the radio switch and turned the volume up. They played their noisemakers as full blast and dashed off once more. They made a long, looping path through the forest, following packed-dirt paths until they reached the edge of the forest. Then they slowed down and let Bitters catch them.

"Stop! Revelers!" he managed between panting breaths. He straightened and brandished his vacuum hose at them, his expression quickly turning confused. "Wait, shouldn't there be more than just two of you?"

Kendall shrugged. "Two person party? This was a picnic."

"I heard you two shouting 'party' at the top of your voices!"

"We were singing along to the song," Jo explained, hitting play on the boom box.

"Party, party, yeaaaaaah," crooned the singer's voice over a synthesized drum-kit and other sound effects. 

"Oh," Bitters said, giving both of them a searching look. They sported their best innocent looks. "Yeah, I don't believe you. Nice try, though." He turned to head into the forest.

"Wait!" Kendall said. "Shouldn't you take backup? It's a dark forest, and you can't search on your own."

Bitters considered this. "Good idea. I'll go get someone to search with me." And with that, he lumbered off.

They stood still until Bitters had turned back on to the main road. 

"Did he just leave us here alone, without forcing us to lead him to the party?" Kendall stared at the small spot that was Bitters power-walking back to the Cedar Woods.

"Yup," Jo replied.

At once, they dropped their noisemakers and dashed for the party.

In the distance, they heard a loud, "DAMMIT!"

They rushed through the forest, knocking over orange flags and vaulting debris until they burst into the clearing. Kendall made for the MyPod stereo and paused the song. "Bitters is coming!" he shouted. 

The whole space was silent and still. Kendall made a move-faster gesture. "Coming _now!_ Get out!"

There was a sudden chaos as people started grabbing their possessions, tidying up the site, and disappearing into the inky darkness. Someone started throwing dirt on the fire. In the middle of the swarm of moving people, Jo grabbed Kendall's hand and pulled him in for a kiss. When they pulled apart, she was starry-eyed and he was pink. 

"Does this mean we're dating?" he asked, dazed.

"Shut up and kiss me again," she retorted. He was only too happy to oblige.

&&&

The Raiders were all suited up before their first game of the truncated season, all of them assembled in the men's locker room and arranged in a horseshoe around Gustavo and Kelly. Gustavo was tapping at his smartphone, the occasional chime causing him to laugh and cheer.

Kelly cleared her throat and elbowed him in the ribs. He fumbled his phone, caught it, glared at her, then turned to face the assembled group before him. "DOGS!" he shouted. "It's your first game." He paused. "Don't suck," he said at last, and walked out.

The team rose to their feet and shuffled out of the locker area murmuring. 

Kendall rubbed his temples.

"You okay, man?" Carlos had his helmet strapped on already, stick brandished. 

"No," he replied, sighing, and he pulled on his own helmet. "This game is going to be a disaster." 

The group of them filed onto the players bench, goalies with their masks up.

"Who should start, coach?" Sarge loomed tall and imposing, stick impossibly long in his hands.

"Uh, you, I guess." He looked at the team, then pointed at Koto, Damian, Lena, Kendall, and Will. "And you, you, you, you, and you." The six of them stared at him. "What are you looking at? GET ON THE ICE."

"How did he pick a decent starting line," Lena muttered, checking her gear before skating out. 

"Dumb luck," Sarge muttered back. 

Kendall faced off against one of the Malamutes, their opposing team. The uniforms were grey, black, and white, with blue accents. Their center was a broad-shouldered guy who easily had a year and change on Kendall. 

The ref skated up to them. "I want a nice, clean game," he said, his Minnesota accent thick. "No fighting, no blood, keep the penalties to a minimum." He raised the puck, and suddenly, Kendall's world narrowed. He deepened his stance, shifted his grip on his stick, and waited for the sound of the puck to hit the ice.

 _Go_.

The team trudged back into the locker room at the end of the first period.

"I didn't think seventeen minutes could feel so long," Logan muttered. 

A similar sentiment seemed to pervade the air. Other scraps of conversation reaching Kendall's ears, none of it good. It all just served to make him angry. 

Gustavo was playing on his phone again, but shut it off himself this time. "What's the score?"

"Three-zip," David called. 

"Oh." He paused. "Do better next period." 

Kendall felt his hands shaking. 

The second period went a little better. Despite their efforts (and Kendall's increasingly aggressive playing) the other team scored twice more. The biggest problem was their offensive line. When players who knew each other were the wings, things went somewhat smoothly. However, when new people were traded, the chemistry changed and their effectiveness fell considerably. 

For Kendall, it felt like they were playing middle school hockey.

The second period ended and the team remained on the bench, faces turned up to listen to Gustavo, like baby chicks gazing at their mother.

Gustavo nodded pensively for a few moments, as if digesting the information fully. "Yup, we're screwed," he said at last. The score, 7-0, implied nothing good, and Kendall grew angrier.

The third period ended with Kendall doing something out of character: he deliberately slammed an opposing player into the boards, knocking the wind out of him. The ref blew the whistle and called for a major penalty, forcing Kendall to go into the penalty box for five minutes. Angry, he smacked his stick against the boards, unthinking. The ref signaled that this was in violation. Kendall would now serve a misconduct penalty.

"C'mon ref!" Katie shouted. "He's angry, anyone would do it!" She sat down in a huff. Beside her, Mrs. Knight was still shouting obscenities at the ref for boxing her boy. 

Kendall watched, boxed, as the team limped along, managing to hobble together a defense strong enough to keep the Malamutes from scoring, but unable to score themselves. By the time Kendall was released, there were thirty seconds left in the game, and Kendall knew he was being benched by the expression on Gustavo's face. 

The final buzzer rang, finishing out the game with a 7-0 score. Kendall felt ill as he shook the hands of his opponents. Most of them were happy, though a few of them sympathetic. He managed to hold it together until the locker room.

A dejected team sat silently on benches in the locker room, waiting for Gustavo to speak. 

Gustavo cleared his throat. "Seven to zero. That's....not great." He paused. "Still, it happens, and it was no one's fault."

"Bullshit," Kendall heard himself say before he could stop himself. A roomful of heads swiveled around to look at him. Emboldened, Kendall continued. "That's completely bullshit. This is _your_ fault, no one else's."

"My fault? _MY_ fault? How is this my fault? I didn't play!"

The team winced. Kendall pushed onward. "No, you didn't. You didn't coach, you didn't bother getting to know us even a little bit, you just let us loose and didn't give a damn." Kendall, already standing, reached down to grab his stick and duffel. "I'm done. I can't keep caring if you clearly don't. I won't play for a team without a coach." With that, Kendall walked out, Carlos, Logan, and James close behind him. Slowly, the rest of the team followed suit until only Kelly and Gustavo were left.

He turned to her. "This is bad."

"Oh, yeah," she agreed. "What are you going to do about it?"

Gustavo answered honestly, sans any bravado. "I have no idea."


	3. Chapter 3

** PART THREE: PLAYMAKER **

"You can't hide here forever, you know." 

Kendall looked up at his mother, tossing aside the hockey magazine and folding his arms sullenly across his chest. "Whatever," he muttered.

"Don't _whatever_ me." She shoved aside his feet and sat beside him. "Come on, honey. You're upset because the coach isn't coaching, the team lost, and you don't know what to do."

He raised an eyebrow. "Do I really need to be here for this conversation? It sounds like you've worked it all out." 

She smacked him on the leg gently. "I'm only telling you what you already know. Here's the part you don't: how to get everyone back together to fix the team and win the tournament." 

"Mom, no way do you have the answer to everything."

She scoffed. "Not even a little bit." She smiled at him and ruffled his hair affectionately. "But I do know that sometimes all you need is for one domino to fall so that the rest can follow." 

"So how do I get that first one to fall?"

"I can't give you _all_ the answers!" She threw up her hands and shook her head.

Kendall laughed and hugged his mother. "Thanks, Mom."

"Look at that smile," she said quietly. "That's my boy." 

That afternoon, he wandered out to the park near the Cedar Woods, where the guys suggested they toss around a football since they were boycotting the rink for a while. As he walked along the park's path, he tossed the football idly from hand to hand, musing on what his mother had told him earlier. The key was still getting the first domino to fall, but what was that? Gustavo being a real coach? The team bonding beyond their uniforms? And what about his shaky position on the team? These questions occupied his thoughts so fully that, when he got there, he was surprised to find the entire team sprawled out under the shade of two elm trees, a few of them on beach towels doubling as blankets. 

Omar gave Kendall a small nod of acknowledgement as he approached. Most of the defensive line gave a half-wave, and Carlos and James moved aside to give Kendall a place to sit beside Logan. "Uh, what's going on?" he asked, lowering himself onto their blanket.

"We're all playing hooky together," Alex said. "If we're going to not play for Gustavo because he's being a selfish douchebag, we may as well all hang out together." 

Logan's brow furrowed. "That makes zero sense."

Malik rolled his eyes. "We're bored and kind of lonely," he said flatly. 

The group made murmurs of assent. A breeze blew past, ruffling Kendall's hair. The question just burst out of him, on his mind for days. 

"Why did you all follow me out of that locker room?" He paused, then figured if he was going to ask, he might as well lay it all out. "I mean, most of you barely listen to me. I knew my buds--" he gestured at Logan, James, and Carlos. "They'd have my back. But the rest of you barely know me." 

"You said what we were thinking," Timi offered, sitting up. 

"It's not like the rest of us were happy with our situation either," Damian added. A number of others nodded in agreement.

Kendall sighed and flopped back onto the grass. "Yeah, well, I'm the wrong person for you guys to be looking to." He clenched his jaw and then relaxed. "I wasn't even supposed to be on the team. I only made it 'cause Carlos, Logan, and James made it clear they weren't in unless I was. James was the player he really wanted." 

Bam-Bam scoffed. "Whatever, dude. After how you played last week? He'd be an idiot to kick you off."

"You played rough, yeah, but it wasn't mean," Seamus pointed out.

"And it was your diversion that stopped us from losing a hell of a lot worse." John's deep voice seemed to linger over the group.

Kendall felt himself blushing, even as his three best friends gently shoved him teasingly. "Yeah, well, I can't take all the credit. Lena, you and Bam-Bam are like a unit. It's like you just _know_ where the puck is going to be when you pass."

Lena arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, well, we've been partners for years. You, James, and Carlos aren't that different." 

"Maybe that's the problem," Robbie said, the group hushing to listen to the quiet voice. "Some of us have played together before, some of us haven't. We need to learn to work together better."

"Yeah, well, unless our _coach_ steps up, I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen." David shook his head and picked at the grass. 

"Not necessarily," James cut in. "Kendall, you brought the thing, right?" When Kendall nodded slowly, James grinned. "Who's up for some touch football?"

Thirty minutes later, they were split up into four teams. They played a truncated tournament, where the first to ten touchdowns was the winner. The teams were deliberately mixed, so that as few established teams were together as possible. At first, a few of them were treating Lena and Bam-Bam with kid gloves, until Lena ducked one guy's shoddy defense and sprinted for the endzone. Her obnoxious touchdown dance signalled the end of any gentleness being afforded to her or Bam-Bam.

The game, despite being ostensibly _touch_ football, unsurprisingly grew more rough. This _was_ a group of hockey players, after all. Once the rain started, however, all bets were off, and the game turned slippery and muddy and chaotic until they all huddled close together under the meager shade of the twin elm trees waiting for the heaviest interval of the rain to pass.

"You know if we see lightning we'll need to make a run for it, right?" Logan chattered out, rubbing his chest and pulling his arms close into his frame. 

"Yeah, yeah, we got it," the crowd mumbled, shivering. With the rain, the temperature had dropped surprisingly fast, and the soaked-through group found themselves regretting their earlier enthusiasm.

"So," Kendall asked, to distract them. "We had two games since the first one, right?"

Sam nodded. "We were up against the Turks and the Buffalo. Since none of us showed up, Gustavo and Kelly had to forfeit both games. We have twelve more and then it switches to a seeded bracket, single elimination. Right now, we're 0-3, but there's one other team with that record. As long as we win the majority of our next games, we can probably come out in the middle of the pack."

Kendall turned this over in his head for a moment. "And when's our next game?"

"Two days," Bam-Bam supplied.

"Okay, then." He grinned. "Think a bunch of high schoolers can train themselves for a game?"

The group hollered, but was cut off by the sound of thunder.

"Thunder means lightning!" James screeched, pushing his soaked hair out of his eyes. "Run for it!" The mass of people dashed out from under the elms, heedless of the torrential downpour around them, and ran blindly for the pathway that would take them to the Cedar Woods entrance. 

Kendall jogged along on the outside of the group when a figure under an orange umbrella seemed to slowly approach him. He slowed down and ducked to see Jo grinning back at him.

"Hey," he said, suddenly feeling breathless.

"You're soaked," she replied, then shifted so that they were both under the umbrella. Without thinking, he took it from her hand and held it so that it adequately covered both of them. "And muddy," she added, wrinkling her nose.

"We played football," he offered as explanation, then leaned down to give her a quick kiss. "I haven't seen you around for a couple of days," he said, taking her hand in his free one.

She laced their fingers. "Dad's been busy with some coaching stuff. Your sister told me you'd be out here, I figured I'd escort you back." 

He gave her hand a slight squeeze in thanks. "So, which team is your dad coaching again?" 

"Some middle school team. The Dragons I think? I didn't really pay attention." 

"Oh, good. I was worried he'd be coaching one of the teams we're up against. That would be a little too dramatic." 

She laughed and bumped his shoulder. 

Meanwhile, Kelly sat in Gustavo's office while he paced, attempting to shout into the phone but getting overruled every couple of words. 

"Yes, but--!" The voice on the other end continued to holler. "Sir, I--" More muffled shouting. There was a pause followed by what sounded like a very firm statement. "Loud and clear, Your Honor." Gustavo ended the call and then threw his phone across the room. Kelly did some mental math and realized it was the fourth MyPhone he'd destroyed in as many months.

"I take it that was the judge," she said mildly, arms crossed. When Gustavo let out a sound of inarticulate rage, she hid a smile. "I'm taking that as a yes." 

"Apparently if they're all absent for another game, I'm going to have to redo my community service elsewhere in this state." He threw his hands in the air. "I can't spend six months in this miserable place! It's _Minnesota_ which is basically Dakota for _hell on earth_."

"Actually, it means _sky tinted water_."

Gustavo looked apoplectic. "Not another word," he said, voice pitched low and raspy. 

She rolled her eyes. "Look, you know what you need to do." At his blank look, she grew exasperated. "Apologize! And step up to the plate. Be their _coach_ , the way you're supposed to?"

He huffed and made hemming and hawing noises. "I don't know the first thing about being a coach."

"Pardon my French, but that's complete bullshit." She stood before him, arms akimbo, practically shaking. "I've seen you coach talent of every kind before. I've seen you work with vocal groups and bands way less cohesive and coherent than this team of kids who love hockey more than they hated your 'coaching' style," she near-shouted, pointing to the side to indicate the team. "I've been your assistant for five years, Gustavo. You can fool those kids, but you can't fool me. You've never forgotten an audition anyone has ever done for you." She jabbed him in the chest with one manicured fingernail. "You picked that starting lineup for their first game because you remembered their tryouts. It wasn't sheer dumb luck, it was you, it was all you. So man up and step up to the plate already." She dropped the hand poking him and found herself breathing hard, heart racing.

Gustavo gave her this assessing look, hard and searching, for a long moment before the tension in his shoulders gave way. "Okay," he said. "You're right. I should do better for these kids." He laughed, a self-deprecating sound. "So, what's first?"

She grinned. "Apologize to the team for being a moron. We'll fix the rest of this one step at a time." 

However, the next day at the scheduled practice, Gustavo was greeted by an empty ice rink being Zamboni'ed by a kooky-looking man sporting a bushy beard and hairdo, who whooped and hollered as the machine went round and round, resurfacing the ice. Inexplicably disappointed, he trudged back to his office to Kelly.

"They didn't show," he said, flopping into the desk chair.

Kelly thrust a three-ring binder at him. "We'll find them later. First, take a look at this."

He rotated the binder so that it was right-side up. "Raiders Playbook, 1997-2001?"

She tapped the desk to emphasize her point. "Those were the years this team took the championship trophy. Half the team got recruited to top universities and pro hockey teams immediately after." She paused. "For a lot of these kids, this tournament is their shot." 

He nodded solemnly. "Okay, so why am I looking at this?"

"Because," she said, turning the pages for him. "These plays are stale, but you're expected to still use them."

"Even though they won't work because all the teams have seen this already," he finished.

"Exactly!" She grinned. "So we have to come up with new plays or at least variations on these." 

Gustavo smirked. "Sounds like you've been working on this already."

"You have no idea," she retorted archly, and then dropped a thick file folder filled with papers on his lap. 

Up at the rink, the Zamboni man gently led the large, rumbly machine to its storage space under and behind the scoreboard while Kendall and the rest of the team started warming up, scoring the ice with their blades as they skated in meandering circles, remembering the feel of the ice beneath their feet.

That day, practice ran the full allotted rink time they had reserved. After an hour of passing, blocking, and shooting drills, sprints, handling exercises, and face-off practice for the entire offensive line, the group trundled into the locker rooms rosy from exertion and hair dark and matted from sweat. 

When the team was showered and assembled, they turned almost as one to Kendall, an expectant expression on their faces. Sheepishly, he shrugged. "Honestly, at this point, anything is better than the half-assed practices we were doing before." The room laughed and he beamed. "Game's tomorrow. We're gonna be there, and we're gonna take it, big time!" 

The rest of the team groaned. "No hockey puns!" hollered Koto, grinning cheekily. 

All easy feelings were gone the next day. The team trickled into the locker room, suiting up in silence as they mentally prepared themselves for the game.

At the players bench, Gustavo was a bundle of nerves. "If they don't come, I swear--"

Kelly shot him a cool look. "If they don't show up, you'll apologize and do this again next season." She braced her hands on her hips and waited expectantly.

In the stands, Katie and Mrs. Knight made their way to good seats. Mrs. Knight held up a poster that said _GO #55!_ in bright green letters. "Too much?"

Katie glanced down two rows, where Jo was seated, her pink jacket and jeans totally at home rinkside. Across her lap was a large sign reading _I ♥ #55_ in blocky, blue text. "No, I think you're good." 

In the locker room, the team assembled, the girls and Robbie joining the rest of them as Kendall shifted his weight from foot to foot (not an easy task in skates) and gripped his stick nervously. "It's our first game as a real team," he started, glancing around the room. Twenty solemn faces stared back. "We've put in the time, though. This time, we made an effort to really be a _team_ and not just a group of talented athletes." He grinned. "We can do this," he said, as much for them as for himself. "We're better now, more cohesive. We could win today." He shrugged. "And even if we don't, there's a game in four days anyway." The team chuckled.

Carlos leaped to his feet. "Let's do this!" he cried, pulling on his helmet, tapping it twice, and brandishing his stick like a standard-bearer. En masse, the rest of the team followed suit, rushing out of the locker room and onto the ice, where they proceeded to warm up. Logan and Will allowed themselves to be pelted by pucks while the forwards practiced their snap and slap shots before stepping aside and letting Will take over the crease.

The ref signaled that it was time to begin the game, so most of the rest of the team shuffled back. Sam, Damian, David, Omar, Aaron, and Will remained on the ice. As Kendall skated back to the bench, he noticed Gustavo and Kelly for the first time. As he approached, Gustavo opened his mouth to say something.

Kendall held up his hand. "We didn't show up for your sake, so just save it." With that, he gave Gustavo the cold shoulder and took his seat. 

Gustavo started to purple. Kelly pinched him. "OW. What did you do that for?" he hissed.

"They're not going to respect you if you just shout at them." She poked him in the arm. "You owe them an apology."

"Yeah, but when am I supposed to give it?" He shot her a sassy look.

She rolled her eyes. "They're here, aren't they? Apologize after the game." He opened his mouth to retort. "Yes, even if they lose."

He shut his mouth and his brow furrowed. "That keeps happening," he muttered.

The first seventeen minute period flew past, and the teams were tied 1-1. The Suns were a slightly younger team -- Kendall guessed most of them were JV string at best -- which was fortunate. It gave their team the leeway to test their newfound skillset. Though their passing was still a bit sloppy -- something only real, true bonding and hours of practice would fix -- their interactions were better. As they trampled into the locker room, Gustavo and Kelly a distant shadow behind them, Kendall couldn't help but feel confident. 

The pleased expressions on his teammates' faces indicated they agreed with him. He grinned at them. "Let's keep doing this." 

The second period was drama-free. While a few penalties and fouls were called, they were mostly minor penalties that lasted only a couple minutes at a time. Kendall had the team trying combination after combination of forwards, defencemen, and even had some of them play center. The other team seemed unsure of what their strategy was -- which was appropriate, given that Kendall's strategy consisted of, _Just try it and see if it works better!_ \-- and their confused playing reflected the strangeness of the Raiders’ lineup changes.

The third period, however, got more rough. It started when the Suns decided to bust out their veteran line, a group of older, taller kids who were clearly the reserve guard. As Sam faced off against their center, one of the others moved, distracting him long enough to lose the puck. From there, it looked like things were set to go south. Though Will was heroically holding his own, it was clear to their team that he was starting to tire. Kendall felt his stomach start to drop.

At the next stoppage of play, Gustavo made giant flaily arm waving motions, which the others took to mean, "circle up," which they did albeit grudgingly. Will clambered over the boards, pulling off his goalie mask and fanning himself. 

"Someone get him some water," Gustavo snapped. John rolled his eyes, but handed Will a cold waterbottle, which he gratefully took and gulped down. "We're going to--" Kelly shook her head in warning, and Gustavo caught himself. "I think we should change tactics. There's only five minutes left, and we're tied. Let's send out a group that's already comfortable working together." 

The team looked at one another. "Kendall, it should be you four," Robbie said quietly, gesturing at the group from Olivia.

Kendall tipped his chin. "Lena, Bam-Bam, I want you guys to be defence for us." 

Logan snapped on his face mask. "I don't know about this..."

"It's probably the right call," Kendall said slowly, glancing at Gustavo briefly. "It gives us a chance against them." He grinned with an easiness belied by how tightly be gripped his stick. "Desperate times and all that." 

James and Carlos were already on the ice, whooping and hollering and generally weirding out the other team. 

"Are they always like that?" Gustavo asked flatly. 

"Pretty much," Logan replied, and skated for the goalie crease. 

Lena and Bam-Bam were phenomenal. They moved like a unit, distracting and defending their section of the ice with surprising ferocity. While the other team gave them no reprieve for their gender, the two of them seemed to revel in this and held nothing back themselves. In a surprise twist, Bam-Bam managed to wrest away the puck and get it to James. With Carlos providing cover, he skated his way to a goal attempt, only for the puck to clang uselessly off the edge.

"You'll get 'em next time, James!" Mrs. Knight hollered, her red hair bouncing as she jumped and cheered. Katie looked vaguely mortified but she cheered every time Kendall sprinted with the puck. Nearby, Jo waved her sign and hollered, making a spectacle of herself.

On the ice, Kendall was watching the last thirty-five seconds of the game tick by before snapping his attention back to the face-off circle. Stance low and grip tight, he caught the puck as it fell and snapped it between his legs. Behind him, Carlos took control of it and skated madly for the other goal, only to be faced by the two defencemen in front of him. Thinking fast, he passed it under his right leg to James, who spiraled back and, subtly, snapped it to Kendall who reared up and put his full upper body strength into a slap shot, the crack of his stick hitting the puck followed rapidly by the game-ending buzzer. The goalie dived, but was too slow, and the puck caught in the net.

Final score: 2-1, Raiders win.

In the locker room, the showered mass of players were gathered in the main part of the locker rooms after the Raiders had basically fallen all over themselves in joy. Gustavo wrung his hands nervously at the impassive stares of twenty-one teenagers.

Kelly shot him a look. Gustavo sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking at the floor. "I was an ass," he continued bluntly. "You guys deserve a better coach...and I think I could be that person. Give me a second chance and I promise to give you guys 100%." He shrugged and offered a helpless smile. "And not just because if you all miss another game I have to repeat this in the fall." Kelly kicked him in the shin. "OW, WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"

Kelly sported a sassy look, eyebrow raised. "Don't tell them that!"

"Uh, we can hear you," muttered Omar. The rest of the team nodded silently, but no one moved to break up the impending shouting match. For most of them, it was the most animated they had ever seen Kelly.

"Why not? You told me to be honest!" Gustavo appeared to be turning purple.

"Not that honest. They're teenagers!" Kelly, by contrast, remained calm and rolled her eyes.

"We're still right here," Sarge said flatly, voice a bit louder than Omar's had been. In the corner, Lena and Bam-Bam covered their mouths with their hands to stifle their giggles.

Kendall rolled his eyes and stood up. "Fine, we give you a second chance." He brandished his index finger. "BUT! If you mess this up and we are through." 

Gustavo's eyes crossed as he focused on the index finger, and then Kendall (and the team, behind him) and his stern expression. Slowly, he nodded. "Deal. One more chance." 

Kendall grinned and relaxed, and the team shrugged, still a bit uneasy. "Awesome," Kendall said, rocking on his feet. "Honestly, I'm not much of a coach."

"You suck!" Bam-Bam called, softening the blow by laughing. 

"Yeah, well, I didn't see any of the d-line trying to step up, now did I?"

The team collectively went, "Ohhhhhh snap!" in unison, Logan elbowing Carlos in the side. 

Kelly brandished a large binder in front of her. On the front was emblazoned, "Raiders Playbook," with the summer season's dates on it. "So, Gustavo and I rewrote the playbook." 

"Yeah, that sounds great," Koto said, clearly lying. "But before that, we need to learn how to be a team.

Gustavo nodded. "And your next game's in three days, so we don't have a lot of time." He paused as the room sobered up momentarily. "So...I'll see you guys tomorrow at ten?"

Slowly, the team nodded back at him. 

"Great. DOGS, OUT." He pointed at the locker room doors dramatically. The rest of the team shook their heads, muttered about loud noises, and shuffled out.

When the last of their voices had faded out, Gustavo turned to Kelly. "That went well, right?"

"Certainly better than last time."

"Thanks," he retorted sarcastically, then folded his arms across his chest.

&&&

Surprising quite a few of them, once Gustavo put his mind to coaching, he proved a fairly capable coach. In retrospect, Logan had mused, they should have known.

"After all," Logan pointed out, "Gustavo _did_ put all of us together."

The team, scattered under the elm trees on blankets and beach towels once more, sipped smoothies in contemplative silence.

"He's still a buttmunch," Lena declared, taking a noisy sip of her purple smoothie. 

It was Jo who called it out. "Buttmunch? Really?"

Lena beamed back at her. "It's an awesome word, shaddup."

At that point, they were about halfway through the season and looked to be ranked seventh overall. They'd lost a game, but won a few as well. Gustavo and Kelly's plays, which they had slowly started introducing into practices, weren't half bad, and with a few real-world tweaks -- for all his closet hockey enthusiasm, as the team had managed to worm out of him, he wasn't a true _coach_ \-- the plays felt rock solid. 

Kendall laid back on the blanket, pulling Jo down with him. "He's kind of a hardass, but he's kept his word," Kendall pointed out. 

"Whatever," Alex offered, his accent roughening his voice slightly. "I'm still wary." 

However, their collective disquiet proved unnecessary. Gustavo arrived before they did and stayed after, pored over tapes of pro games for inspiration, pulled every internet search he could about hockey coaching, and basically threw himself fully into his duty as a coach. It was refreshing and vaguely terrifying, given how intense Gustavo's scrutiny could get. Once, Aaron had changed the grip on his stick and Gustavo had called him out on it. 

As Gustavo and Kelly dedicated themselves to writing a better team playbook and being better coaches, the rest of the team did more and more together outside of the rink. Aside from their semi-regularly elm-tree-and-smoothie picnic, they had taken to a game night once a week, as well. This was mostly at the insistence of Mrs. Knight, who had quickly tired of all-night marathon sessions of them playing Duty Calls 4 and getting into fights over it. 

So, instead, the team convened in the rec room once a week, and threw a boardgame party. Sometimes this was a cover for them to go to a field party, sometimes they genuinely would gather and play Brainiac until two in the morning. Kendall was honestly hard-pressed to pick which nights he preferred. 

One night, Carlos pulled out a pair of guitar controllers from god knows where, and Sarge and Alex revealed a color-coded drum kit, keyboard, and mic, and Kendall knew what was coming: a night spent sipping smuggled mixed drinks and playing Rock Group 3 until they were kicked out of the lounge. 

Surprisingly, even though his best friends took up the primo instruments first, they didn't push him to play. Which was fine by him. He had Jo snuggling into his side, a cup of Polynesian Fruit Punch mixed with something alcoholic (probably vodka, if he knew his teammates at all) and nothing to worry about for a while.

Surprisingly, everyone wanted a go at the system, even the people who weren't very good at videogames in general. Most hilarious was an increasingly reddening Koto, who upon failing for the ninth time looked ready to murder his guitar controller. Fortunately, Camille laughed good-naturedly, pushed him towards Guitar Dude, who was lounging in a corner strumming along to the music, and picked up the axe herself. 

"Dude, it's cool, man. I can't get the hang of that game either," Kendall managed to overhear before The Clash rang out through the room. 

Somewhere around midnight, when Kendall was feeling pleasantly buzzed and loose-limbed and maybe a little horny given how hot and heavy he and Jo had gotten over the course of the night, James hauled him bodily out of the seat, causing Jo to dissolve into giggles, and thrust the mic into Kendall's hands.

"What the hell is this?" Kendall asked thickly.

"It's a mic," James explained slowly, shaking his hair out of his eyes. He beamed. "Shut up and sing, it's Kansas." 

Kendall suddenly beamed and turned to the screen. After a shaky start, he got into the rhythm of it, voice warming to the song and alcohol making him fearless. He sang along with the karaoke track, pouring his whole body into it, until the last notes of the song faded out and the whole room burst into applause.

Suddenly shy, he dropped the mic and snuggled back into Jo's side. She looked at him, eyes wide and grin large. "You were amazing! I didn't know you could sing like that!" 

Kendall, to his eternal mortification, felt himself growing hot. "It's nothing," he mumbled. "James is the real singer," he said, pointing at James, who was singing along with the Beatles' likenesses onscreen. 

Jo's brow furrowed. "James's voice is really good," she said slowly, "But yours is too." She shrugged. "Your voices are really different." 

"If you say so." He pulled her so that she was half-straddling his lap and ran his hands up her sides. "You are super hot," he murmured against her mouth, and kissed her until she forgot all about his singing voice. 

Across the room, the Jennifers looked vaguely bored by James and Carlos's two-man antics. Blonde Jennifer finally yawned and checked her cell phone very obviously. "Oh, look at the time," she said flatly. "Ladies, let's get out of here." Faithfully, brunette Jennifer trotted after her, casting one lingering, longing glance at a James who wasn't paying attention, and walked away.

Katie pinched James in the arm. "Ow!" he cried, then started when he realized who it was that had pinched him. Panicking, he pulled her around the corner and looked down at her. "What are you _doing_ here?" he hissed, glancing at Kendall in a panicked gesture. Fortunately, Kendall was clearly occupied.

She stood, arms akimbo, and shot James a flat look. "One, I love Rock Group. Two, this is perfect blackmail opportunity. Did you _see_ Kendall singing? That's dish duty for a month at least!" She paused to cackle slightly, then composed herself once more. "Third," she said, scuffing her foot against the carpet. "If I hadn't been here, no one would be able to punish you for being an idiot."

"Hey!" he cried, and pointed at Katie. "Putting shaving cream on my toothbrush only happened _one time_." 

She rolled her eyes. "Brunette Jennifer likes you," she said flatly.

"Really?" He grinned. "Well, it _is_ hard to resist...The Face." He did a neck roll and made spirit fingers.

Katie kicked him in the shin, albeit lightly. "Also, I might have...missed you guys."

James paused in rubbing his injured shin and blinked. "Missed us? But Katie, you _live_ with us."

"Yeah, but you guys are always practicing or hanging out with your team." She pouted and James felt his resolve crumble slightly. "I just wanna spend time with the best big brothers ever." 

_That_ caught James's attention. "Big brothers? Plural?"

"That's what I said, didn't I?"

He beamed, inordinately proud. "C'mere, you!" She shrieked and darted away, James chasing after her.

Back around the corner, curly-haired Jennifer had lingered behind her friends and was now facing Carlos. "Pick me up at 4:30 tomorrow," she said quickly. "I wanna take you on a date."

Starstruck, Carlos nodded mutely. Smiling, she glanced at her friends, then pulled him in for one hell of a kiss. Just as he had begun to deepen his response, she pulled away, patted him on the cheek, and sauntered off, knowing he watched as she walked away. 

"Damn," Carlos breathed.

Across the room, Camille and Logan were fighting about something inane -- it sounded like finger placement for maximum Rock Group potential -- when they suddenly started making out. Gingerly, Lena got the guitar out from between them and then shoved them none-too-gently out of the way of the screen, pulled the strap over her head, and began to rock out. Logan and Camille stumbled backwards until they hit a wall, never stopping their liplock. 

When the cleaning staff came by at 5:30am, they found the mass of teens (and a pre-teen, in the case of Katie) curled up around one another, videogame system muted but continuing to flash bright colors in blinding patterns.

&&&

Gustavo had impressed upon them the importance of being _on time_ to this practice, so the team dutifully had been warming up when Gustavo had shouted for them to circle up.

"DOGS!" He shouted, puffing himself with pride. Whatever was coming was something he was particularly proud of himself for. "I brought a special guest for the next couple of days to help coach." He stepped aside and Dak Zevon stepped forward.

"Dak Zevon?!" the team cried in unison. 

He grinned and gave a short wave. "Hey, Raiders. Gustavo asked if I wouldn't mind doing a master class of sorts with you guys. I have a week off and I owe him, so here I am." 

Twenty-one heads swiveled to stare at Gustavo, who simply shrugged nonchalantly. "I know a guy," he offered noncommittally. 

That practice had gone _phenomenally_ , with every member of the team giving a hundred percent to impress their guest coach. Afterwards, when they had smoothie time, everyone was quiet, sipping their drinks in relative silence. 

It was John who finally said it. "Ugh, everything hurts," he admitted, flopping back on the grass.

David groaned too and rubbed his shoulder. "Seriously, Aaron, did you have to check me that hard?"

"Go big or go home," Aaron replied without opening his eyes.

"Yeah," Malik scoffed. "Go home 'cause I'm injured." 

Timi stretched his arms above his head and the group winced in sympathy when his shoulders popped. "I haven't played that hard in weeks," he admitted. 

They were all quiet again for a moment.

"So, is Dak a good coach?" a new voice piped up. Most of the team laboriously sat up to get a look, but Kendall just rubbed his eyes.

"What do you want, baby sister?"

She fell into a cross-legged position on the grass near him. "Nothing."

"Spill it," he said, sternly.

"I want Dak Zevon's autograph," she said in a rush.

At that, Kendall sat up, with Logan, Carlos, and James following suit. "Autograph?" they asked in unison.

"But, Katie, you don't usually like famous people like that," Logan pointed out. 

Behind him, Camille and Jo shared a look and shook their heads, mouthing _boys_ at each other.

Katie humphed. "Well, Dak is _dreamy_ , okay. Now shut up and get me that autograph or I will fill your bed with blue raspberry gelatin again." She crossed her arms across her torso.

Kendal made an "I surrender" gesture. "Okay, okay, I'll get you the autograph."

"Promise?"

"Pinky promise," he said, and they shook on it.

True to his word, Kendall approached Dak after practice the next day while the rest of the team was showering. "Um, my sister would like an autograph." 

Dak beamed. "Sure! What's her name?"

"Katie." 

Dak swirled the permanent marker across the photograph and then handed both back to Kendall. "I hope she likes it," he said.

"Thanks," Kendall replied, heartfelt. "I think she really will."

Dak clapped Kendall on the shoulder. "Hey, for what it's worth, you've got a lot of talent, kid. With determination and a little luck, you could go pretty far."

At that, Kendall grinned. "You really think so?"

Dak nodded. "Sure do. Hey, if you ever go pro and you're in Detroit, look me up sometime, yeah?"

Kendall nodded eagerly. 

The older guy laughed. "Awesome." He hefted his gear bag and offered his signature short wave. "See you 'round, kid." 

Kendall, embarrassingly enough, stared after Dak long after the other man had gone. It took Logan throwing his glove at him for Kendall to snap out of it. Quickly, he stripped out of his gear, stashed the photo carefully in his locker, and headed to the showers, passing by the rest of his team as they filed out of the bathing area. 

"Slowpoke!" a few of them called. 

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," Kendall hollered back, rounding the corner. He let the shower run for a minute to flush out the cold water, then stepped under the spray. 

Back in the main room, Gustavo sat in his office reviewing notes that Dak had prepared for him. The team looked like a solid group of them, which Gustavo couldn’t help but preen a bit over. Talent was talent, and Gustavo could always spot a star. The the standout was James, according to Dak, but Lena and Bam-Bam were forces to be reckoned with. Will was a solidly reliable goalie, good at covering his five holes and staying in his crease. Logan, however, was better when the situation turned more unpredictable. Logan was better at adapting, even if he wasn't as consistent as Yates. Medek was a goalie in need of more seasoning, which made sense. Of his three goalie options, Medek was the youngest and least experienced; a double-whammy.

Sam as a center was solid. He had more mass to him to make him a formidable counter to any teams made up of football player-esque high schoolers. Malik was swifter, faster on his feet but less reliable on getting the puck. His ice vision was solid, though, and he could plan strategies better than either Sam or Kendall.

However, Kendall was the better all-around. He made good decisions in the midst of the action, and was good at trusting his wings and defensive line, which in turn meant that they listened to him with more care. Beyond that, he had a certain amount of natural charisma to him, which was the most important aspect of a good leader. 

The rest of the report detailed Dak's assessment of the forwards -- from Carlos's power playing to Robbie's lithe grace -- and the defencemen, comparing their strengths, weaknesses, and favorites. 

The quiet of the locker room was suddenly broken by the sound of a single voice, clear and strong, singing a Boys in the Attic hit from fifteen years ago. Gustavo felt the hairs on his arms rise, and a chill skittered across his nerves. That was a _good_ voice, a knockout voice. _Who the hell was it?_ The rest of the team and even _Dak_ had left by now.

Since it sounded like it was coming from the showers, Gustavo stayed put. Whoever it was would walk by his office to leave, and he'd pounce....proverbially. 

Kendall, meanwhile, finished up, glanced at the clock, and started. It had gotten way later than he'd expected, and he was supposed to meet Jo for smoothies and cloudwatching. Shutting off the water, he dried off and dressed quickly, toweling his hair dry roughly. He grabbed his backpack and half-jogged out of the locker room.

"Kendall!"

Kendall paused and popped his head into Gustavo's office. "What's up?"

Gustavo's expression was tough to read. "Was that you singing a minute ago?"

Kendall's expression turned wary. "Yeah, why?" He shrugged. "It's not opera, I know, but I didn't think it was that bad."

"Uh, no, it wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good." Gustavo's expression morphed somehow, into something more contemplative. "You ever thought about making a career as a singer?"

At that, Kendall laughed out loud. "Ha, nice one. See you tomorrow, coach!" With a wave he jogged out of the locker room and into the sunshine. 

For a long moment, Gustavo contemplated his folded hands. Then, he continued to read through Dak Zevon's notes.

&&&

They came out fifth overall in the tournament.

Which meant their first tournament game was up against the #10 ranked team, the Turks. 

"Wednesday at 10:00 AM," Kelly announced, reading off the schedule. "This is a single elimination tournament. No best of seven, no loser's bracket, just--"

"Win or go home," Lena broke in, face solemn, as she twisted her glove viciously. 

"Well, more like, win or sit in the stands," Logan corrected. 

The rest of the team collectively rolled their eyes. 

"Whatever. DOGS." Gustavo swept an arm at the room. "You are going to do your best! The Turks are a younger, faster team, but they aren't as skilled as you all. Take them head-on and they'll be too terrified to respond."

Which was almost exactly how their 3-1 victory went down.

&&&

Thursday afternoon, James and Carlos high-fived each other and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of Logan. "Logan!" they chorused.

"Come to the hockey game with us," Carlos finished, tapping his helmet with a grin.

"Yeah, dude, it'll be brotimes." James and Carlos high-fived again.

Logan shot them an apologetic look. "Sorry guys, I promised Camille that I'd help run lines with her. She got the part, so she says she needs all the practice time we can get together."

James's expression turned considering. "And what play was this for again?"

" _Romeo and Juliet._ ”

Carlos looked puzzled. “Isn’t it July?” 

Logan shrugged. "Summer theater program."

"Ohhh." James grinned understandingly and elbowed Logan in the ribs. "Riiiiight. Have fun, buddy!" He and Carlos proceeded to bound out of the room, thumping a passing Kendall on the back as they passed.

"Where are they going?" Kendall jerked a thumb at their departed friends. 

Logan shrugged. "Off to watch this afternoon's tournament game, I guess."

"Oh. It's Hawks against Scorpions, right?"

"You're the one with the bracket memorized." Logan grinned and stood up, smoothing out his clothes. "How do I look?"

Kendall raised an eyebrow and surveyed Logan's outfit. Tan cardigan over a pink shirt, dark slim-fit blue jeans, skater shoes, and Logan's trademark wave in his hair. "Like Mister Rogers," Kendall said with a grin to soften the blow.

Logan punched him in the arm. "Shaddup. I'll see you later." 

As Logan left, Kendall's mom and Katie rushed out from their part of the apartment. "Oh thank goodness I found you," his mom said in a rush. "I gotta go take care of some last-minute stuff, could you watch Katie for the afternoon?" Kendall opened his mouth to respond, but his mother kept speaking. "Thanks hon!" She blew him a kiss and bustled out the door.

"I have a date with Jo," Kendall said to Katie.

Katie folded her arms across her chest. "Well, I think I'm too old for a babysitter, so I guess we're both stuck." 

Just then, Kendall heard a knock at the door. Sighing, he pulled it open, expression apologetic. "Hey, Jo." 

She waved brightly, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and walked in. "You ready to go to the park?" 

"Actually..."

"He got stuck babysitting me," Katie broke in, rolling her eyes. "Even though I am _perfectly_ capable of staying home on my own." 

Kendall shrugged. "Look, baby sister, Mom asked me to look after you." He turned to Jo. "I'm so sorry about this, but you don't mind, do you?"

Jo dropped her bag and shook her head. "Are you kidding? I think your sister is awesome."

Katie perked up. "Really?"

Jo grinned. "Of course! So, what do you wanna do?"

She bit her lip. "Bake chocolate chip cookies and then play _Luigi's Go-Kart Racing_?"

Jo high-fived her. "Let's go!"

Kendall blinked, taken aback. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea," he murmured, hearing excited squealing from the kitchen. 

At Apartment 4J's door, Logan took a breath, and then knocked on the door. Camille opened it, her brown hair in waves over her shoulders and a big grin on her face. "Hey," he greeted, nervously stuffing his hands in his back pockets.

Camille's grin turned sly and she launched forward and kissed him, backing him up into the wall. He kissed her back eagerly, pushing her back into her apartment and kicking the door closed behind him. 

James and Carlos settled into the bleachers while the other teams were still warming up. The Hawks, the team in black and silver, were the winner of the championship trophy for the last five years. From the way they warmed up, it was clear they were a focused, determined team of experienced players. 

By contrast, the Scorpions, the bottom-ranked team in the tournament, were short a full roster and had a pair of tiny freshmen as their starting defensive line. Their goalie looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over. 

"Didn't we go really easy on them because they were tiny, and they still lost?" Carlos asked.

James nodded. "Yeah, and now it looks like they've had problems because of injuries." He tsked. "This is probably gonna be kind of sad."

Carlos shrugged and bit into a corn dog, then glanced to his left and nearly choked. 

Curly-haired Jennifer was sitting a section over, nibbling delicately on a corn dog.

Logan and Camille had managed to separate long enough for Camille to rearrange herself and pull out the scripts. With zero subtlety, they flirted with one another while reading lines from the play, their bodies slowly shifted towards one another until they were on the sofa and touching from knee to hip. 

When Tybalt dies at Romeo's hand, Logan muttered, "Finally," and reached for Camille, pulling her towards him until she was straddling his lap, knees on either side of his hips, her lips soft and pliant against his own. His fingers found the edge of her blouse and tugged up so that his hands could roam against the bare skin of her back. 

She gasped and suddenly they were French kissing, and it was a million times better than reading lines.

In the Knight family apartment, Kendall was roundly getting his ass kicked by the girls in Go-Kart Racing. As he fell off the cliff for the fourth time thanks to a well-placed bombshell, he groaned. "How are you both this good?!"

Jo grinned. "Whenever I visit my cousins in Virginia, this is all they ever want to play. I started playing the original version, on the 64-bit Console, then the PlayCube. The Uss version is probably the best, though."

Katie cackled as she sabotaged a computer player as she passed him, then glanced at him. "What do you guys think I do all day? I play this on my Game Device constantly."

Kendall tapped A on his controller to get a speed boost. "I thought you were playing Dragon Knights and Templar Quests or something."

"Please," she retorted. "That's at night, when you guys are playing Duty Calls 4 until 2 am."

Jo brightened. "Oh, you guys have that game? I'm pretty good at it!" 

At the hockey game, Carlos and James winced every time the Hawks checked any of the Scorpions. The whistle signaling the end of the second period was a welcome respite from the cringe-worthy playing that was taking place below. In fact, the score was 5-1, and the single goal the Scorpions had gotten was purely due to luck and no skill whatsoever. 

As the teams retreated to their locker rooms, James caught Carlos making puppy eyes at Jennifer. James rolled his eyes and shoved Carlos. "Go talk to her!" 

Carlos stumbled into the aisle, where Jennifer turned to see him, and beamed. He glanced back at James who made a shooing gesture and picked up his popcorn. Smiling nervously, Carlos made his way over to Jennifer and sat beside her.

"Hi."

She smiled up at him from under her lashes. "Hey." She turned to her side and revealed a small box filled with corndogs. “Want one?”

"I think I love you," he blurted out.

She just grinned and kissed him. 

James smiled behind his popcorn, the expression falling away as he heard the ref's whistle blow.

Jennifer and Carlos separated, too. "This game has been pretty rough," she commented, absently handing him a corndog and taking one for herself. "Those kids seem really little."

"Yeah, the Hawks are definitely mostly seniors, and the Scorpions are particularly shrimpy freshmen." He took a bite of the corndog and made pleasured noises. "Where did you get these?!"

"I, uh, I made them myself."

As Carlos swallowed, the puck dropped, and James winced at the fast, needlessly rough play on the ice.

"You cannot be real." 

Jennifer set aside the box and grinned at him. "This real enough for you?" She slid a hand across his chest and pulled him for a deep, long kiss. Carlos felt his toes curl, felt himself drop the corndog to wrap his arms around her waist, felt himself respond to her physically before he even really realized what was happening. 

"Get a room!" James shouted, throwing popcorn at him. Carlos just blindly gave him the finger and kept kissing the girl half on his lap. 

In 4J, Logan found himself on top of a Camille who had been only too ready to shimmy out of her shirt. His hand ran up the length of her bare leg to cup her ass under her skirt. She giggled and shifted until their hips were nestled against each others and squeezed her legs together slightly. At the sensation, Logan started and pulled back.

"I, whoa," he gasped, flopping back on the sofa.

"What? What's wrong?" Camille sat up and reached out for Logan. 

"I, no, that's not, no," Logan stammered, trying to collect his fleeting thoughts even as his heart and hormones raced. 

"Then what is it?" Her voice suddenly got small. "Did I do something wrong? Is it me?"

"NO!" Logan said forcefully, pulling her hands into his own, kissing the backs of them, then the delicate skin on the inside of her wrists. "Don't think that, no." He gestured embarrassedly at his erect state. "As you can probably tell, you're not the problem here."

She swooped in for quick peck, a small smile on her lips. "So what is it?"

Logan took a deep steadying breath and said, "I'm not ready for us to...."

"To have sex?" Camille said frankly. Her teeth grazed over her kiss-swollen lips. 

"It's not you, I just...I don't think I'm ready right now, and I just..." He trailed off, not sure how to express what he wanted to say in enough words.

Fortunately, he didn't have to. She sat back and took his hand in both of hers, pressing a kiss to the knuckle of his thumb. "It's okay. I get it." She smiled. "You wanna hang out with Carlos and James after the hockey game?"

Logan beamed. "Yeah, that would be great." He kissed her sweetly. "You're really amazing, you know that?"

"I do," she said, shamelessly. Then she grinned. "But it's still nice to hear." She reached for her blouse, but Logan tugged it out of her hands and held it for her while she slipped her hands through. Then he turned her around and buttoned her up, lips pressing against her skin before buttoning it safely behind cotton and rayon. 

When he was done, they kissed sweetly once more. "You are too sweet, Logan Mitchell," she murmured, then took his hands. "C'mon, let's go find your friends." 

Back in 2J, Kendall finally had the upper hand, much to Katie's chagrin and Jo's amusement. "Take that, fake Nazi scum!" Kendall crowed, then cackled. 

Katie rolled her eyes and shot a baleful look at Jo. "You just _had_ to insist on Duty Calls 4, didn't you?"

"C'mon, it's not that bad." 

"Panzerfaust? Panzer-hell-yes!" 

Katie shot her a flat look. Jo winced. "Okay maybe it's kind of terrible." 

The front door opened to reveal Logan and Camille, holding hands and looking dishevelled. Kendall paused the game and raised an eyebrow at Logan. Behind him, Jo did the same at Camille. In turn, Logan and Camille tried to play it cool.

"Hey, guys," Camille said brightly, making a short wave. "We finished running lines and figured we'd see what you were all up to." 

"And you guys couldn't think of _anything_ else to do?" Kendall raised an eyebrow.

"No. We. Couldn't." Logan managed, through gritted teeth. Kendall took this as a sign to let it go.

"We were just playing videogames," Jo broke in. "But I think we've got too many people now for Duty Calls 4. How about we grab dinner and eat on the deck?"

The others nodded and so the five of them headed out. Katie, thinking ahead, slipped her Game Device into her jacket pocket. Being the fifth wheel could suck majorly.

Back at the rink, Carlos and Jennifer kept being physical with each other, causing James to grin every now and again. Which was a welcome respite, because the game turned ugly. When the game-ending buzzer sounded, it couldn't have been more welcome. The Hawks had been ruthless in their victory. They skated in a circle on their side of the rink, cawing a cheer, while the Scorpions hobbled off the ice. 

Incensed, James stood up. "Carlos, I'm going to give that coach a piece of my mind."

"Uh-huh, yeah, okay," Carlos called back, wrapping a couple of Jennifer's curls around his fingers. 

James made his way down to the locker rooms, taking his time to ensure that the locker room would be empty. Carefully, he watched the last of the Hawks walk out of the locker room, gloating, before slipping into the changing area and heading for the coach's office.

The Hawks' office was on the floor above the locker room, where about half of the coaches for the high school teams had their offices. Knocking, James burst into the small office, ready to give the Hawks' coach a piece of his mind.

Behind the desk was a slim, darker-skinned man sporting a close-cropped, tidy afro, and wearing Wayfarer sunglasses and a charcoal gray suit. "Hello, James," the other man greeted, smiling and folding his hands on the table. The nameplate read GEORGE HAWK.

"Uh, how did you know my name, and why are you wearing sunglasses indoors?"

Hawk ignored James. "Sit down, please." Off-balance, James complied. "I've been watching you at your practices, James. You're good, probably one of the best players in this division. Don't you see? Being a Raider is holding you back. Be one of Hawk's Hawks." He spread his hands in an encompassing gesture. "I can offer you so much. Including a recording contract."

James felt his heart stop. "What?"

"You've always wanted to be a star, right?" Hawk opened a drawer and pulled out a MyPod Home system and pressed play. A recording of James singing from Rock Group night played back. 

"Where did you get that?!" 

"I have a source, but that's not important," Hawk smoothly side-stepped. "I could make all your dreams come true: fame, fortune, a music career, and a hockey championship. What do you say?"

Just then, James's cell phone beeped. Grateful for the distraction, he pulled it out. It was a text message from Kendall, saying they'd grabbed dinner and were waiting for him on the deck. James abruptly stood up. "I have to go," he said, and moved to the door.

"Just think about my offer!" Hawk called after James, who strode out of the office. As he listened to James's footsteps fade out, he began to laugh maniacally, occasionally cawing like a bird.

Downstairs, James walked out of the changing area, not even acknowledging Seamus and Timi calling out to him. Confused, they traded a look before seeing a still-cackling Hawk walk out of the locker room as well. 

On the deck, the chips and burritos and guacamole were long gone, all eight of them sated and full, when Kendall finally asked the question. "So, how were the Hawks?"

Carlos blushed and ducked his head, having not paid much attention to the game. Beside him, Jennifer leaned into him and took his hand.

James, however, simply shook his head somberly. "Brutal," he said frankly. "They weren't even willing to go easy on that bunch of kids. It's going to be a rough game if we end up taking them."

"I don't understand," Logan broke in, Camille balanced on his lap with his arms wrapped around her waist. "We played them a couple of weeks ago. They were fine, just like any other team. A little rougher, maybe, but so were we early on."

"They had a coaching change in the middle of the season," Katie piped up, seated next to James. "Their previous coach suddenly went on vacation and the team got their current coach. After that, their playing style changed a lot." The four guys gave her a look. "What? I was running a betting pool, so I attended every game." She huffed in annoyance. "Seriously, none of you guessed? Lame." 

Kendall shook his head and wrapped an arm around Jo, who beamed and leaned into his chest. "Whatever. It's a long shot if we play them at all. If we do, we'll worry about it." 

James shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "There's one other thing." He took a breath. "Hawk tried to recruit me away from the Raiders."

Carlos gasped, affronted. "Is that even _allowed?!_ "

"Yes, it is," Katie said, calmly, placing a medium-sized paperback book on the table and opening it to a bookmarked page. "According to the tournament rules, players can change teams twice in the season, and once during the tournament, in order to mitigate any major conflicts or adjust for team imbalances." She skimmed the page muttering incoherently for a moment. "Ah ha, here it is. 'All trades must be wholly voluntary, or the traded players must at least both acquiesce to the trade.' So technically, James could leave the team and be traded for nothing or penalties, or something." 

Kendall reached over and ruffled her hair affectionately. "Baby sister, you're the absolute best."

She grinned and ran a hand through her hair to return it to its former styling. "What'd he offer you?" she asked James, glancing up at him. 

"A tournament championship...and a recording contract."

"Oh," the rest of them chorused softly. James's dreams were no secret to the rest of them, especially not after the way he'd bragged during Rock Group night. 

It was Katie who took the initiative and, uncharacteristically, gave James a hug. "It's okay. Gustavo's a producer, right? Maybe he'll discover you when this season's over."

Touched, James hugged her back. "Thanks, Katie," he murmured into her hair.

"Aww," the rest chorused. 

Kendall nodded. "Yeah, we'll be all right. And, like I said, maybe we don't make it far enough to play them, anyway."

&&&

Six days later, they triumphed over the Buffalo in a shootout that had followed a 1-1 game.

In the locker room, Gustavo and Kelly grinned madly and shouted, "WE'RE GOING TO THE FINALS!"

The sweaty mess of teenagers around them erupted into cheers and a new round of hugging and fistbumping and laughter and cheers. Kendall, showered and in street clothes, grinned, pushed his still-damp hair back out of his eyes, and left the locker room to find Jo waiting for him. 

"Hey!" he called, half-jogging over to her to kiss her and spin her around. "I can't believe we're going to the finals, and playing the Hawks!" He smiled, but then sobered at her expression. "What's wrong?"

She bit her bottom lip. "So you know how I applied to Hollywood Arts High School, since I want to be an actress?"

Kendall nodded, smiling. "The place sounds perfect for you, I told you." 

"So, good news? I got in!"

"No way!" He spun her around again, while she squealed delightedly. When he set her down again, though, she took a step back, and he wised up. "What's the catch?" he asked quietly.

She licked her lips. "I have to leave tomorrow afternoon."

"Before the game?"

She nodded. "My dad's already gone. His team was knocked out in the first round of their tournament, and the kids still have their chaperones, so he's free to leave." She smiled wryly. "I fly out alone tomorrow." 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the rest of the team quietly watching them. He squeezed her hands. "Then let's make tonight really special. What do you want to do?"

She looked down at their clasped hands and then smiled up at him, eyes a bit glassy. "Could you teach me how to skate?"

He beamed. "I would love to." 

The others watched them walk away, puzzled. "Why are they super serious?" Carlos asked.

Katie walked up to them, buffing her nails against her shirt. "She's leaving tomorrow, for L.A., and she won't be able to watch you guys play the Hawks."

Logan shot her a look. "How do you _know_ that?"

"I can read lips," she replied flatly.

"Really?" they chorused.

"No. I got it out of Bitters."

"How?!" they cried in unison.

At that, she smirked. "A girl's gotta have _some_ secrets."

&&&

Buddha Bob waved goodbye as he closed the door to the ice rink, giving them some privacy.

"Steady," Kendall coached, holding Jo's hands in front of her as she struggled to stay standing on the ice.

"How do you guys stay standing?" She grinned at him fleetingly, before looking down at her feet. "Stop sliding!"

Kendall laughed, then skated around and behind her, finishing at her side. He slid one arm around her waist, and took her left hand in his left. "Okay, we'll do this a little differently. When I say 'right,' push off your right leg and put your left foot forward, okay? Same for the other way." He mock-glared at her. "If you mess this up, we'll both take a tumble onto the ice, okay?" She nodded. "Okay. Ready? Right foot." 

Dutifully, she pushed with her right foot, and Kendall's push helped propel them.

"Left!"

She pushed with her left foot, letting her right leg lead. He repeated twice more until her grip on his hand loosened slightly and she laughed. "I'm skating!" 

He grinned. "Sure, we can call it that." 

She glared at him and kept alternating her legs, her visegrip gradually abating until he moved his arm from around her waist to at his side, and she hugged it. In silence, they skated laps around the rink, gliding around the turns. 

"I'm really going to miss you," she said at last, giving his arm a squeeze.

"I wish you didn't have to go," he replied honestly.

"Ask me to stay."

"Would that make a difference?"

After a moment, she mutely shook her head, and they continued to skate in circles. After a while, she gently let him go and, on wobbly legs, skated a full lap slightly separated from him, beaming the whole time. In spite of himself, Kendall couldn't help but laugh and skate backwards in front of her.

"Showoff," she accused, though she smiled.

He grinned, dimple out in full force. "You look like a baby deer." He mimicked her shaky legs and flaily arms. Glaring, she skated faster to give him a shove, but lost control and fell. 

Kendall skidded and looped back to help her up. "You okay?"

She rubbed her hip as she stood. "Yeah, nothing hurt but my pride." She smiled up at him. "You wanna grab something to eat?"

He glanced at the clock. "Wow, it's later than I thought, sure." 

Over dinner -- sandwiches and salads at a local place -- they threw croutons at each other and took bites of each other's food and chatted about home and family and all the important things they hadn't really talked about before. Kendall talked about working at the local grocery store to help his mom make ends meet. Jo talked about how she was Santa Claus in their first-grade play and how that had inspired her to be an actress, even at six years old.

Eventually, they discarded their trash and walked slowly back to the Cedar Woods, holding hands and looking up at the stars. Kendall pointed out the constellations while Jo told him some of the stories behind them. Still, all too quickly, they reached her door.

"Well...." Kendall trailed off, standing before her. 

"My dad isn't here," she blurted out.

He raised an eyebrow.

She took a deep, steadying breath, and squeezed his hand. "Stay with me. For the night." She bit her lip.

"Are...are you sure?"

She nodded solemnly, then unlocked her door, pulling him in after her. He kissed her, free hand running boldly up her shirt as she arched into his touch.

The door clicked shut behind them. Shortly after, the deadbolt slid into place as well.

&&&

In the locker room the next day, the three of them traded looks before Logan tentatively breached the silence.

"So, uh, those are the same clothes you were wearing yesterday." 

"Yup," Kendall responded, rummaging in his locker. 

"We covered for you last night, when you didn't come home," Carlos offered.

"Oh, good, thanks guys."

James, however, was having none of it. "So, how was it?"

Kendall was half-blocked by the locker, so the guys only saw his ears and the back of his neck flush very suddenly. "We have a game today. _The_ game. Let's stay focused." He shot them all a significant look, and then began stripping down to change into his gear.

The three of them shared a look. 

Carlos cleared his throat. "Are you sure you're okay, man?"

"I'm _fine_. Everything is fine. Okay?"

The three of them looked at him knowingly, and then extended their arms. "Hugs?" they asked in unison.

Kendall looked at them for a moment, and then accepted the group hug without (much) complaint. "She left an hour ago. It hasn't really sunk in yet." 

"Just keep it together for an hour, dude." James said, pulling away first.

"You can do it!" Carlos added, Logan nodding enthusiastically beside him. 

Kendall gave them a small smile. "Thanks guys." 

After they had suited up, they filed into the main area, where Gustavo and Kelly stood, wringing their hands. 

"This is it," Gustavo started, squaring his shoulders. "The big one." He smiled ruefully. "I'm not going to lie, I don't think any of us saw us getting this far when the season first started, but here we are." He rubbed the back of his head. "What can I say? You guys have done an amazing job." He sniffed. "I'm really proud of you dogs," he said, voice getting kinda shaky.

Sarge rolled his eyes and stood up. "Go hard, stand strong, do it big time!"

The team rose to their feet and cheered, filing out of the locker room to warm up on the ice. The last to leave, Gustavo wiped his eyes while Kelly patted him comfortingly on the arm.

"Hey, Gustavo!" Hawk called. 

Gustavo quickly went from weepy to enraged in 0.6 seconds easily, Kendall noted absently as he warmed up. 

"You're going to LOSE, Gustavo. Just like you always do!" Hawk then proceeded to laugh maniacally, weirding out some of the Hawk players near him. They edged away from their coach slowly.

Gustavo let out a wordless sound of rage. "No, Hawk, YOU'RE the one who's going to lose!" 

"We'll see about that," Hawk said, chuckling evilly to himself.

"DOGS!" Gustavo called. The team skidded their warmup to a stop and circled up around him. Gustavo shiftily eyed the Hawks, then said to the Raiders fiercely, "Take them _down_."

The team grinned, more a baring of teeth, and raised their sticks in the air with a semi-barbaric cheer. 

The ref eventually blew his whistle, ending the warmup session. Gustavo had John and Alex stay out as the starting line, bringing in Omar and Aaron. Kendall skated up to the face-off circle at center ice, Sarge and Koto at his sides. 

The Hawks' center was a stocky, dark-haired guy with probably 50 pounds and six inches of shoulders on Kendall. 

"I want a good, clean game," the ref warned sternly, his Canadian accent undercutting his point. Kendall stifled a snicker and glared back at the Hawks player. Choking his stick, he lowered his stance, adjusted his grip, and felt his world narrow to a scant few inches of ice. Every sense felt muted. He couldn't hear the crowd, couldn't see Gustavo or Kelly on the sidelines. All he heard was his heartbeat, slow and steady, and the whoosh of his breathing.

The puck fell, a solid dark shadow headed for the ice, and Kendall's world sped up and widened. 

The first period's play was fast and frantic. The puck would make it past one blue line before changing direction almost immediately after. The ref kept stopping play due to icing and offsides infractions, and in the competitive heat, some tempers were already starting to flare. 

When the buzzer sounded for the end of the first period, the scoreboard read 0-0.

The locker room was an angry rumble of teen voices. The period had been frustrating, to say the least, and every player was muttering curses under his or her breath. Gustavo pressed two fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly, silencing the room. 

"Everybody just shut up," he said, somewhat unnecessarily. "They're playing to win out there, but so are we. Keep your heads down, your stances low, and take every opportunity you have to make it happen." He panned his gaze slowly across the semicircle of athletes. "Win, but do it right. If I know Hawk, and I do, he's going to want to play dirty. Do NOT sink to their level." 

The second period started with Malik at center while Kendall sat out most of the period on the players bench. Malik swept for the puck but the Hawks player got to it first, and snapped it to his left wing. Sam and Damian moved to block, while Omar and Bam-Bam pulled back. The Hawks pressed forward until they were past the red line and then things seemed to turn chaotic. The puck moved fast and furiously, moving from player to player. Will readied himself for the shot, eyes tracking the puck better than almost anyone else on the ice. Bam-Bam moved to intercept the puck, but the player she was covering wrapped his fingers around her stick.

"HEY!" she cried, but it was too late. He let go and got the puck while she sputtered in rage, then raced to shove him roughly against the boards. 

"Foul," called the ref, signaling. "Five minutes in the box, young lady." 

She turned red. "Ref, he grabbed my stick! What the hell was I supposed to do?"

He solemnly pointed at the box.

" _What?!_ That's it? He doesn't get penalized at all? In what _universe_ does that make sense?" 

He rolled his eyes and blew his whistle. "Arguing with the ref, two more minutes!"

"SHUT UP AND GET IN THE BOX!" Gustavo shouted from across the ice.

Grumbling, she acquiesced. Damian took her post as a defenceman, but the Hawks pressed their power play state to their advantage. With Damian taking a backseat, Malik could only send to Sam, meaning the Hawks knew how to cover them. Malik, however, passed to Omar, who doubled over to Damian, who sprinted for the other goalie's crease, knowing that icing wouldn't be called on him. Omar and Malik lingered at center ice while Damian reared back and took the slap shot seconds before he was checked by a Hawk.

The puck dinged off the goalie box, leaving a golf-ball sized dent. The crowd groaned, the ref called icing on the Hawks and play was taken back to center ice.

Omar and Sam were switched out for James and Alex, who high-fived and skated into place. Bam-Bam eyed the clock anxiously, pacing in her skates inside the box. 

Face off. Malik snapped the puck to James who employed some amazing footwork he would never admit he picked up in figure skating. He deked a pass to Malik, then spun, jumped over an errant hockey stick, and pin-balled the puck off the boards to get it to Malik, who took the shot. It was good, but the goalie deflected it and the Hawks took control. 

Alex, lingering at center ice, skated backwards in front of the main Hawks charger, who was controlling the puck with precise, small movements. Alex tried to sweep check, but the other guy skidded to avoid. He then got aggressive, checking with his stick and shoulder into the guy, pulling him off the puck and giving control to Alex, who snapped it over to Malik.

Malik, though, made it about a yard before the puck was taken away from him. 

In the penalty box, Bam-Bam counted down the last ninety seconds of her penalty while the puck traversed back and forth across the ice in a repeat of the first period. "Five...four...three...two...one! LET ME OUTTA HERE." The box door opened and she raced to her team's side of the ice in time to check the oncoming Hawks player who thought he'd found the hole in their defence. While he reeled, she snapped the puck over to James and grinned. "Mama's back in town." 

By then, the Hawks had managed to retake possession of the puck and were driving it back to the other side. There were maybe thirty seconds left on the clock. With time ticking down, their left wing deked and, completely without any impediment, took a slap shot at the goal. Will valiantly attempted to stop it, but his glove skimmed the base of the puck as it soared into the goal. 

Back at center ice, Malik had been switched out for Sam, who lowered his stance in preparation. The puck dropped and though Sam got it to James, it made no difference. The buzzer sounded as James was lining up the shot, the other team having been all over him from the start of play.

In the locker room, tension was high. 

"Get the puck in the crease. If you can get it there, we're halfway to a tie." 

"We know!" The team chorused, frustration evident in their voices. Gustavo raised his hands and stepped backwards. The team wiped their faces and took a drink and waited for _something_.

Unable to help himself, Kendall stood up. "Everyone, look. Team." The room got quiet very quickly, the team focused on their captain and lead center. Kendall shook off the nervousness that having twenty pairs of eyes on him seemed to elicit. "This season has been the most intense, the most trying, the most insane three months of my life, and I know you all feel the same. So, fine, we're in the finals, but we never expected to be here anyway. We're here playing to win when we _should_ be playing for the love of the game. 

“Because, what happens if we lose?" He looked around the room, meeting eyes with some of the players. "What happens? We go back to our home teams and we end up playing each other during the regular season." The room chuckled and a few kids who were normally on rival teams bumped fists. 

"My point is, we need to stop playing to win. They're already doing that, and clearly we aren't going to beat them at that game. So, let's have fun. We'll go big time--" there was a collective groan and Kendall grinned broadly at his own terrible joke. "We'll go big and go home, because first or second doesn't matter to me."

"Fun, fun, fun, fun..." Carlos chanted, the cheer quickly being picked up by the rest of the room until it echoed deafeningly off of the cinderblock walls. 

Kendall raised his stick in the air and shouted, "Let's go!" The team roared inarticulately and they all rushed out of the locker room as a grinning, cheering horde. 

Gustavo cupped his hands around his mouth. "Kendall, Carlos, James, you three plus Josh and Lena. Will, cover the crease. Show us what fun really means!" 

The six of them skated out, huddling over the blue line briefly. "Remember," Kendall said. "Have _fun_. Mess with them, skate circles around them, dekes, the whole enchilada. Make the crowd laugh -- make _yourself_ laugh. Grin the fucking whole time." He grinned broadly. "It'll confuse the heck out of them." The others gave a short nod, grinning back, and skated to take their positions. Kendall lowered himself into a crouch at center ice. 

Across from him, the Hawks center practically growled at Kendall, who simply laughed. "Dude," he said. "Chill out." That caught the guy sufficiently off-guard such that, when the puck dropped, he was a fraction of a second too slow. Kendall sent the puck to Carlos and the game was on.

Carlos, who had started as a defenceman before moving up to left wing, took the puck and skated backwards, stick tapping the ice furiously. At one point, he shook his booty at the guarding player, who was so puzzled by the action that Carlos managed to pass to James with little interference. 

James, in turn, used footwork to his advantage, practically dancing around the other player. He looped around his guard, beamed, and rushed past him. The other guard tried to block his way, but James passed to Carlos through his legs, who snapped it into the net after skating around the back of it. 

The five of them did a group high-five and went right back to it. The other team was rattled by their antics, but the puck simply moved back and forth between the teams' zones. Gustavo changed out Lena for Aaron, then Carlos and James for Sarge and Robbie. That particular change threw the other team for a loop. Slight and willowy, Robbie moved on the ice like a finely honed aerodynamic human. Sarge, by contrast, was a wall of a teenager. Yet they all played joyfully, laughing when they made passes and at the Hawks' serious expressions. Even the crowd got into it, laughing while the Raiders skated literal circles around their opponents. 

When the buzzer went off, the team had changed out at nearly every stoppage of play, and just about everyone on the roster had gone in. Logan, in full goaltender gear, looked forlornly at the ice.

The team circled up around Gustavo. "They're rattled for now, but I think they're onto us. We've got five minutes of overtime to burn until the penalty shootout. Keep them on their toes and keep the puck away from Will. If you have the shot, _take it_." He stuck out his right hand, palm-down. "Raiders on three--" the others layered their gloved hands on top of his. "One, two, three. RAIDERS!"

The team cheered.

Five minutes went up on the clock. Once more, Sam crouched down in the center faceoff zone, grinning madly at the Hawks player across from him. When the puck dropped, he swiveled on his skates and took the puck back onto his side before turning a tight U and rushing for the other goal. From out of nowhere, a defenceman slammed into him, sending Sam into the boards and then onto the ice.

The ref whistled for a stoppage, then skated over to where Sam was pushing himself to his feet. "You okay, Zero-two?" 

Sam groaned and pushed himself to his feet. "Yeah," he said, rubbing his arm. "Nothing broken." He skated over to the players bench while the ref threw the other guy into the penalty box for ten minutes plus a two minute violation. "I'm tapping out, coach," Sam said, continuing to rub his bicep and elbow. 

"Malik, you're up," Gustavo called. Malik clambered over the boards and into the team huddle.

"They're a man down for two minutes before they can sub in another player. If we're going to take a shot, we do it now." Malik pointed at Lena and Bam-Bam. "You two, stay at the center line, keep them distracted. David, Damian, you two stick close. They're going to try and double up. Deke and we might have a chance." The other four nodded and they broke, moving to their positions on the ice. 

The puck dropped. Malik took it and sent it to David, who weaved between players and used a spin/pivot maneuver that he'd clearly picked up from James. When the press was too intense, he reversed and snapped the puck to Damian, who passed it back to an open Malik. He revved up and took the slap shot as the clock counted down the last ten seconds.

It dinged uselessly off the top bar. 

The ref signaled for a shootout, and the team huddled up. "Which three should it be?" Gustavo looked over the crowd.

"James for sure," Kendall said, clapping his surprised friend on the shoulder. "James is our best player. He should absolutely be one of the three." Silently, James gently punched Kendall in the shoulder.

"Sarge," Lena said. "Even Will freaks out a bit when Sarge steps up to the line."

"Robbie," Timi and Koto said in unison. It was Timi who offered an explanation: "Our best fake-out shooter? The goalie will never see the deke coming." 

The three nominated players nodded their acceptances. "Any objections?" Gustavo scanned the group and saw none. "Okay. You three, looks like you're up."

Sarge skated up and shot first, a powerful slap shot that the goalie managed to block with his stick. 

James skated second, his deft stick handling and control allowing him to get a puck past the goalie and into the goal. Half the crowd cheered, including brunette Jennifer in the stands. James saw her and flirtatiously blew her a kiss. She swooned. Beside her, blonde Jennifer rolled her eyes.

Finally, Robbie skated, lithe movements deceptively slow. Robbie made to shoot from the left, but by the time the goalie realized his mistake, it was too late, and the puck was snapped in skillfully.

The Raiders cheered and slapped the three of them on the back and shoulders. 

Will stood. "Coach," he said loudly, and the team silenced. "It should be Logan."

Gustavo and Kelly beamed. "That's exactly what I was thinking." Gustavo raised an eyebrow at Logan. "You ready?"

Logan snapped to his feet. "You bet I am!" He flipped down his face shield and stepped onto the ice, crouching in a butterfly stance when he reached the crease. 

The first Hawks player skated forward, a mammoth young man with a fierce expression on his face. He lined up the shot and took it. The puck bounced off the goalpost and into the net. The Raiders groaned, then cheered encouragingly on. 

The second player skated out, but his attempted deke failed and Logan blocked the puck with his goaltender's stick. The Raiders cheered loudly, then silenced rapidly as the last player stepped up to the puck.

"If he blocks this..." John breathed. 

"Shut up, you'll jinx it," Omar hissed.

Kendall, James, and Carlos, meanwhile, silently waited in expectant agony.

Logan swallowed around the lump in his throat and ignored the racing of his heart. All he heard was the tap of stick and the scratch of skates against the ice; all he saw was the puck. The player skidded to a stop and reared up for a slap shot. Logan steadied himself.

**_THWACK!_ **

The arena was pin-drop silent as everyone waited. Logan took one step forward, opened his glove...

And dropped the puck on the ice.

The arena suddenly erupted into cheers. While the ref signalled the no-good, the scoreboard lit up. Seemingly out of nowhere, triumphant music started to play as the Raiders mobbed Logan. In the stands, Mrs. Knight and Camille cheered ecstatically, jumping up and and down in glee. Nearby, Katie gleefully counted her take from the betting pool.

Gustavo stepped out onto the ice and carefully made his way over to Hawk, who was clearly seething. 

"Gustavo! Don't think this is the end of it! I'm still better than you!"

"What was that? I couldn't hear you over the sound of my _winning this tournament_."

Hawk let out an inarticulate screech of rage and reached over the boards to grab fistfuls of Gustavo's zip-up hoodie, pulling him close. "You listen to me, Gustavo. This isn't the end of things. I swear to you, I _will_ have my revenge and you will rue the day you crossed Haw--hrk!" Hawk was forcibly pulled off of Gustavo, who took a step back and straightened his clothes.

Two rink security officers glared down at Hawk, who was kicking and shouting and generally resisting being contained. 

"Is this gentleman bothering you, sir?" The first officer asked.

Gustavo blinked twice, and then grinned. "Why yes, he is, officer." 

"We apologize for the inconvenience, sir," the second one said blandly. The two of them dragged Hawk back into the locker room and, presumably, out of the stadium. Gustavo smirked at Kelly, who beamed back, and the two of them gingerly made their way to their team.

The mob of teen revelers at center ice raised Logan above their heads, still cheering. The chant of "RAID-DERS, RAID-DERS" echoed in the rafters seemingly forever.

&&&

Friday night was the scheduled going-away party. For the guys, their day had been pretty quiet. After celebrating winning the tournament well into the night -- Mrs. Knight had even managed to stave off Bitters' complaints about the noise and the music and the cheering -- the guys had woken late, spent the day slowly packing their things, and tried to work up the energy to say goodbye to their summer experience.

Carlos laughed as he placed neatly folded t-shirts into his duffel bag.

"What?" Logan called, playing Jenga with his tower of reading material. 

Carlos shrugged. "Nothing, I was just thinking about how, six months ago, only one of us really wanted to be here at all." 

The other three chuckled quietly at that.

From the other room, Katie's unhappiness was loud and clear. "Ugh," she groaned loudly. "Why does school start in two weeks?!"

The four of them sighed and groaned in solidarity with her. 

Later, they all dressed for a night in the woods and stomped out to the clearing where the field party had been, weeks ago. The closer they got, the quieter Kendall turned.

His mom pulled him aside and let the others get ahead of them by several yards. "Honey," she said, wrapping an arm around him. "You wanna talk about it?"

Kendall shook his head. "Not really." He paused. "It hurts, Mom. She's gone, and I don't think I'll get to see her again." 

"Oh, Kendall." She stopped and hugged him tightly. "It's going to be okay." She smiled up at him. "At least you got one last night with her, right?"

He gaped at her. "Wait, you _know_ about that?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Was I born yesterday? Of course I knew." Her expression softened. "It's okay, though. I understand. It's more than I got with your father, after all." She ran her hand comfortingly from his shoulders to his elbows. "It sucks right now," she said frankly. "You're going to be sad and unhappy for a while, and then, one day, you'll realize things are a little bit better than they were before. And so is the next day, and the day after that. But honey? Tonight isn't about her. It's about you and your team. You can be sad tomorrow, too."

He leaned down and hugged her tightly. "Thanks, Mom," he murmured into her hair.

In the clearing, the firepit was going full force, and a number of their teammates were roasting marshmallows on slim metal pokers that someone had thoughtfully brought along. Carlos bee-lined for curly-haired Jennifer, who already had a small plate of perfectly toasted marshmallows at her side. 

Logan quickly found himself with an armful of Camille, who pulled him away to sit with Carlos and Jennifer and pressed marshmallows into his hands as soon as he sat down.

James grabbed Katie, who was reaching for her Game Device, and spun her around while she shrieked, then pulled her along for a piggyback ride around the clearing, leaving Kendall and his mother standing alone for a moment.

She glanced over his shoulder. "I, uh, think I'm going to check out that bowl of punch over there."

Kendall slowly turned around and was surprised to see Kelly and Gustavo. "Uh, hey guys...?"

Gustavo shifted nervously from foot to foot. "Kendall," he started. "I know when we first met I may have judged you too harshly." Kelly kicked him in the shin and he glared at her. "What I'm trying to say is, you're a great center and a talented forward and a good team captain. I was....wrong about you."

Kendall realized he was surprisingly touched to hear those words. "Thank you. You're....not such a bad coach yourself." 

"I was hoping you'd say that, because there's something I've been wanting to ask you." Gustavo took a breath and held out a small digital recorder and hit PLAY. From the tiny speaker came the sound of Kendall's performance at Rock Band night.

"Where did you get that?" Kendall asked faintly, unsure of where this was going.

"Hawk had it, but he...dropped it when he was escorted out of the rink."

Kendall smirked. "You lifted it? Nice." 

Gustavo waved a hand dismissively. "The point is -- Kendall, you’ve got a real talent here, one I haven't seen in a long time, and I know talent when I hear it. Come back to L.A. with us, record some demos. Let me make you famous." 

For a moment, a split second, Kendall imagined it. Imagined life in Hollywood, where the sun always shone and the temperature was always right, spending weekends surfing and inline skating instead of shoveling snow and corralling shopping carts. Imagined meeting up with Jo again and being alone with no friends out on the West Coast. Imagined fame and fortune, and the betrayed look that his friends, especially James, would wear anytime he saw them.

Kendall shook his head. "Thanks but no thanks, Gustavo."

"Kendall, think about this for a minute," Kelly broke in. "Fame, fortune, it could all be yours."

He shook his head again. "I'm not interested, at least not in a solo career." He jerked a thumb back at his three best friends, far behind him, who were laughing and engaged in what could only be called _antics_ by the fire. "Unless you can take the four of us, it's not gonna happen."

"A boy band?" Gustavo's nose wrinkled.

"Vocal group," Kelly automatically corrected.

"That's the deal," Kendall said. "It's the only way you'll get me to L.A. 'cause otherwise? My life is here, in Minnesota." 

The two shared a look before they nodded. "I can respect that," Gustavo said, then sighed. "Guess I'm back on the road after this, then." 

Kelly shrugged, then grinned. "I think your team wants you," she said, pointed over his shoulder.

Kendall pivoted on one heel to see twenty faces grinning at him and beckoning him over. He turned back to Gustavo and Kelly, gave them a short wave, and jogged over to the others.

"What's up?" he greeted.

Malik grinned. "It's time for a camp tradition." 

Seemingly out of nowhere, Guitar Dude appeared, still sporting sunglasses, and strummed. Then, he began to play an intro.

It was James who caught on first. "I've paid my dues," he sang. "Time after time." He raised an eyebrow at the other three and continued singing. "I've done my sentence but committed no crime."

Carlos grinned and joined in. "And bad mistakes, I've made a few. I've had my share of sand kicked in my face--"

"But I've come through!" Logan joined in, recognizing the song. 

"And I need to go on and on and on and on..." sang the rest of the team.

"We are the champions, my friends?" Kendall sang hesitantly, while the others nodded. "And we'll keep on fighting, til the end." 

Guitar Dude strummed the chord progression, and then the whole team was singing. "We are the champions, we are the champions! No time for losers, 'cause we are the champions...of the world!" 

"Just Minnesota!" Gustavo shouted, and the team burst into laughter. Around the camp, the other teams cheered and clapped. A couple pulled up their MyPhones and waved them back and forth like at a concert. They sang through the song all the way to the end, and had a few encores through the night, with one of them randomly bursting into song and the rest joining in.

[ ](http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/phantompearl/18984150/4979/original.jpg)

Eventually, they all sprawled out on the grass, staring up at the stars, while the fire slowly burnt itself out. On the other side, Mrs. Knight and Katie nodded off, leaning against a log-bench for support.

"I'm gonna miss you guys," Seamus said, uncharacteristically sentimental.

"You'll miss us less when you have to play us during the actual season," Malik pointed out. A few others chuckled.

"Everyone joined the MyFaceBlog+ group, right?" When a number of assenting sounds responded, Will shrugged. "Then we'll be able to keep up with each other. Plus, some of us have cars, you know." He laughed. "Think of it this way: now all our home teams have a slightly better chance at the state trophy."

A number of others laughed, but Lena shook her head. "You guys, Seamus is right though. I really am gonna miss you all." 

"We'll be back next year," Kendall said confidently, his three best friends laid out nearby. "This was fun, and it was great getting to know you all. Even if Gustavo doesn't come back, I'd definitely be a Raider again."

"We're all part Raiders now," Carlos said, voice thick and slow with sleep. "We carry that with us in our hearts." 

There was a pause.

"That sounds dirty," Koto said frankly.

The rest of the team laughed, their voices fading out into the night air.

&&&

The next day, they boarded the bus with heavy hearts and almost no sleep. Kelly hugged each of the guys in turn, Gustavo opting to shake their hands. "I'll be spending the next year looking for a new person to make into my next _star_ ," he said, shooting Kendall a significant look. Kendall simply shrugged and wished him luck.

"We'll be in touch, I promise," Kelly said, voice teary, and handed Mrs. Knight a greeting card. Her eyes turned glassy. "Have a safe trip, and call!" She hugged Mrs. Knight tightly one more time before she and Gustavo walked off to bid farewell to another knot of players. Kelly surreptitiously wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.

"Think we'll see those two again?" Logan asked, settling into his window seat.

"Pssh, nah," James said, stretching his legs out into the aisle. "They're L.A. cool, and this is _Minnesota_. Please."

Kendall shrugged, remembering the offer they'd made him, and his conditions. "I dunno, you guys. Stranger things have happened."

The bus doors shut with a loud hissing noise, and the destination plate on the front changed from LITTLE FALLS to OLIVIA. With a lurch, it pulled out onto the open road.


	4. Chapter 4

** EPILOGUE: CRATER RAPIDS **

The four of them stepped off of the bus and dropped their bags onto the sidewalk, stretching after a long journey.

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about how long we've been on that bus," James said, stifling a yawn.

"Nine and a half hours," Katie supplied, stepping off the bus herself, Game Device Super Pocket in her hands and messenger bag slung across her shoulders. Behind her, Mrs. Knight was checking her printout of the instructions. 

The four of them groaned. "Katie!" they grumbled in unison.

Katie shrugged and popped her shoulders. 

Mrs. Knight folded up her papers. "C'mon, guys, we're supposed to go straight, turn left, and we should see the place in front of us." 

Shrugging, the six of them lugged their things from the bus stop along the route they were told to follow. Turning left, they gasped. The Birch Woods was even more striking than the Cedar Woods had been the year before, larger and newer and made to impress an Olympic audience.

"Dang," Katie muttered. "No wonder they decided to host the Youth Benefit Games here." 

"Yeah, that and the four ice rinks nearby." Mrs. Knight strode forward, pausing to giggle slightly at the doorman gallantly opening the door for her, and headed straight for the reception desk.

The figure in the chair swiveled around, then recoiled. The six of them started as well. 

"Mr. Bitters?!" the guys chorused.

" _You_ people! What are you doing here?"

Mrs. Knight shot him her sassiest look. "We're invited to play in this year's Youth Benefit Games. I'm their chaperone." 

Grumbling, Bitters entered their names into the computer and smiled fake-pleasantly at them. "You'll be staying in 2J, here are your keys."

"Hey, it's the same number as last time!" Carlos beamed. 

"Isn't that just _special_ ," Bitters muttered, turning back to his computer.

After they unpacked their things and had gotten settled in, the four of them went out onto the deck. Since they were in the Adirondacks, this deck included an enclosed area and a hot tub that they all eyed appreciatively. Flopping into deck chairs, they sipped smoothies and sighed contentedly. 

"I can't _believe_ Gustavo invited us back," Carlos exclaimed.

"We know," the other three chimed.

"You only said it like five thousand times," Logan added, glaring at Carlos.

Affronted, Carlos frowned. "Fine, well, it was still cool that he got a bunch of the Raiders to come back, too." He rubbed his elbow. "I think I still have the scar from when we played Lena and Bam-Bam's team."

"We're the Griffins now, don't forget," Kendall interjected. "Gustavo said he got us a sponsor this year, so the team name changed."

"Honestly," Logan said, adjusting his shirt, "I can't believe Gustavo was invited back as a 'celebrity coach' for this thing."

Kendall half-heartedly defending the guy. "Hey, he's a celebrity. Apparently." He shrugged. "I'm just glad we get to play in the Youth Benefit Games. Do you _know_ how many college scouts will be here? The answer is _all of them_."

“As if we didn’t get scouted enough after winning the AHU Summer Tournament?” Logan raised an eyebrow.

Kendall looked affronted. “Those are _national_ and pro coaches. No comparison.”

"Whatever. I don't know about you guys, but I'm _most_ excited about all the new girls." James slipped on some sunglasses and laid back on the deck chair cushion, head pillowed on his arms. The other three rolled their eyes.

Just then, a familiar trio of girls walked past, their hair blowing in the breeze. It was the three Jennifers, the figure skaters from Little Falls. They glanced at Carlos and James and kept walking on. Curly-haired Jennifer gave Carlos a short wave before striding past. Blonde Jennifer rolled her eyes. James watched them walk away over the rim of his shades, winking at brunette Jennifer when he caught her eye, while Carlos stared in slackjawed appreciation.

"Yeah," Carlos said weakly. "I'm definitely excited about the girls."

Suddenly, a brunette with long, wavy hair walked up to them, slapped Logan across the face, and burst into dramatic tears. 

"How could you just leave us?! We were starving, cold, and broke, and you just left us to dig ourselves out of it alone! Why kind of _monster_ are you?"

"Hey, Camille," the four of them chorused.

She beamed and straightened up. "Hey guys. Welcome to the Birch Woods. How're the new digs?"

"Swanky," Carlos offered.

"Lots of mirrors," James added, running his lucky comb through his hair as he said so.

"Can you say, forty-inch plasma screen tv?" Kendall clapped his hands together joyfully.

"Ow," Logan finished, rubbing his cheek.

"Aww, you okay?" She sat down beside him, murmuring comforting things as she checked his face for more permanent damage.

A young woman dressed in a leather jacket, jeans, and boots stomped by. Her hair was black and red, and her eyes were rimmed with liner. She glanced at James and her gaze slid past him dismissively. However, Kendall caught and held her gaze until she passed.

"Who was that?" he asked, slightly dazed.

Camille craned her neck. "Oh that? That's Lucy Stone. She's a speed skater. They say she's already qualified for the next Winter Olympics." 

Glancing back at the direction she'd gone, Kendall turned back to the guys. "You know, I think it's going to be a great summer." 

He grinned, and the three of them grinned back.

**Author's Note:**

> I always include final comments in my stories. For this one, especially, I felt it was necessary.
> 
>   1. Wordcount: 38,686 words. This is the longest single story I have ever written.
>   2. This can't be said enough: many thanks to my beta reader and artist, , for all of her support, brainstorming, chatter, prodding, editing, and general awesomeness. This fic would not be here today without her, and I am truly grateful.
>   3. I rewrote a significant portion of the pilot into the story. Some small change were made -- I added some detail and dialogue, and updated some of the references. You'll also note that I switched James and Kendall's lines for parts of the setup. It's on purpose; remember, this story is a loose Mighty Ducks AU, where it's Kendall's dream come true, but only James can get them there. One of the references I updated was changing "The Pussycat Dolls" to just Nicole. Pretty sure PCD aren't a band anymore, just sayin'. 
>   4. There's a handful of things that I changed names (Target == Bullseye, Game Device == GameBoy, MyFaceBlog+ == Facebook, etc) but there's a few things I didn't change, or whose references need to be explained. 
>     * The American Hockey Union is _not_ real. It's based on [The U.S. Hockey League](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Hockey_League), the premiere league for young men looking to go pro in hockey.
>     * MSHSL stands for [Minnesota State High School League](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_State_High_School_League). They coordinate all athletic trials between high school teams in the state of Minnesota. For my Midwestern readers, they're like the IHSAA, or for my Texas readers, they serve much the same function as UIL rankings. This organizational body _is real_.
>     * Hyland Hills Ski Resort is based on [Hyland Ski and Snowboard Area](http://www.threeriversparks.org/parks/hyland-lake-park/hyland-ski-and-snowboard-area.aspx) just outside of Bloomington, MN. All reviews would indicate it's a lovely place. And no, I don't know why Matthew McConaghey would have a winter home there; just go with it.
>     * [Olivia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia,_Minnesota) and [Little Falls](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Falls,_Minnesota) are actual towns in Minnesota. However, Little Falls looks substantially different in real life. I pattered my head-canon Little Falls off of [Lake Placid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Placid,_New_York), which is why there's an Olympic-class traning facility in the middle of nowhere. In real life, Olympic hopefuls train on one of the coasts. Michelle Kwan, for example, trained in California and Canada for years. So does Kim Yu-Na.
>     * This reference is a bit more obscure: _Cyan vs. Magenta_ is a reference to [Red vs. Blue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_vs._Blue), which honestly just makes me think of Pokemon.
>     * Yes, [Kansas is a real band](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_\(band\)).
> Honestly, there's a ton of references. If you're confused, please feel free to ask here. I'm happy to clarify what is what.
>   5. I did a _ton_ of hockey research -- but the only thing I couldn't get my hands on was a tape of a game. As such, I owe many thanks to [this video playlist](http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL09D55E5B51E071F5) a huge debt of gratitude. All hockey terms are the correct terms (though they may not be used correctly....) and I tried to preserve as much realism as I could throughout. The biggest bit of fantasy is how diverse the Raiders are. Only about a third of the players are fully white, and even they have something unique about them. Robbie's gender is deliberately neutral, Sarge and Alex are Russian immigrants, Bam-Bam is one of two women on the team, David is Jewish, Seamus is Irish-Catholic, and Will is probably the most gifted goalie any of them will work with. I'll consider putting up my little chibi-anime sketches of each of the characters. If you're to know more about any player, feel free to ask.
>   6. I thought you guys would like to see this: I made a full bracket for the tournament, since I glossed over it so much.  
>   
> 
> 
> [](http://i.imgur.com/UR0k6.png)
> 
>   
>   
>  I'll post more extra material from my research and notes later on, when I'm not basically ready to fall over from exhaustion, haha.
>   7. I honestly hadn't intended to accidentally 'ship Katie/James, but there you are. Also, any weirdly slashy moments between the guys are totally deliberate. I love teasing it, sue me.
> 

> 
> Guess I'll go work on my novel, now.


End file.
